"The Powerpuff Girls..."

I'm a failure at posting. 1 measly post last month. Blegh. Well, here's something hilariously amazing to start August off on a slightly better foot.

Just...Christian Bale's face. I can't take this.

I Suck, I Suck

Yes, I know. I'm a terrible, terrible blogger. My heart's just not in it anymore. Or anything, really. But let's keep the pathetic-ness to a minimum.

I have an Emmy Nominations post in the works, but right now what's more important is that San Diego Comic-Con is going on. A lot of people think it's annoying that what used to be "nerd/geek" Heaven has now become yet another Hollywood promotional tool, but hey, at least Hollywood is mostly only sending COOL stuff there! (Glee was there once but we don't talk about that.)

For instance, this amazing Adventure Time clip was shown at Comic-Con this weekend:



I'm SO STINKIN' EXCITED for this...how often does fanart get animated? Not very. I guess it's different when the fan works for the show. But every AT fan loves Fiona and Cake, so how can you not be dying to see this? Also NPH is Prince Bubblegum so your arguments are invalid.

I'll keep you posted as to when this airs.

WHAT IS THIS I CAN'T EVEN

Keeping up with this blog has felt like a chore lately. I think too fast and I have too many things to say to just limit myself to one post a day. Obviously, no one is stopping me from doing more, but I feel like my blog is more legitimate with "rules" and standards. By this I mean that I feel like I HAVE to post a specific number of posts each month, a number that is divisible by 5. It's lax but also rigid at the same time...if I have nothing to say, I post anyway, just because I know I have to reach 5 or 10 or 15 or whichever feels appropriate. (This month it was 5.) And sometimes I have way more to say than the 5 times tables will allow.

I also feel like I'm doing myself a disservice if the writing isn't up to "standard." I've let this one go over the last few months; I've barely written anything at all. I just post videos and quote songs and it's everything I did NOT want this blog to be. Page views are down. This place is like a wasteland. And since I have such an erratic posting schedule it's hard to keep people interested, especially with so few posts a month in comparison to other, "similar" blogs.

Last July I posted every single day -- well, almost. I took 1 day off. I don't think I'll be able to do that again this year, but somehow, imposing such a strict rule on myself really helped. I made some good posts and some bad posts, but at least there was variety and it really helped me get some traffic. Numbers are arbitrary, sure, but why am I writing in a public forum if I don't want people to read it?

So, while I definitely will not be posting every day in July, I will try to put more effort into my posts and try to schedule things a little bit better. I have some good ideas of things to write about; it's just a matter of getting them on paper. Err, or whatever the virtual equivalent of that is.

I was gonna quote "Clint Eastwood" by Gorillaz but that's an easy trap that I don't want to fall back into. So, instead I will bid you farewell, until July...which starts quite soon.

Dat Saxophone

Here's a very nice performance of the radical song "Bizness" by the crazy kids in tune-yards, which is stylized as something so stupid and annoying to type out that I refuse to do so. Check this song out! It's addicting.

Uncontrollable Excitement

So Jeff Mangum is one of the most elusive people in the music industry -- not that he really is IN the industry anymore. Ever since their magnum opus In the Aeroplane Over the Sea Jeff and the rest of Neutral Milk Hotel have kept themselves out of the public eye, unfortunately, and for reasons unknown.



But! Over the past year Jeff has come out of his self-imposed isolation to play some shows, both secretly and publicized. And this fall he's embarking on his first solo tour in YEARS.

And guess who's going to see him play in September?

MOI! Let's hope this doesn't turn into another JGL thing where depressing circumstances cause me to miss out on what will surely be the greatest night of my exceptionally young, college-bound life. I'm super excited to see him play and I'll let you guys know how it is.

Graduating

I graduate high school in a few hours. I don't feel as reflective as I think I should be. I'm just letting this song do the comtemplating for me.



The ultimate graduation song, naturally. High school was a weird time for me with a lot of good and a lot of bad...I think I had a romantic notion of what it would be and was disappointed when it didn't turn out that way, but I enjoyed a lot of my atypical moments as that weirdo people never knew the name of despite going to school with me since kindergarten.

High school ended on a good note, and I guess that's all I can ask for.

Happy Birthday Anne Frank

Today would have been her 82nd birthday.

I've been a huge Anne Frank fan since I was in elementary school. I've always had a thing for epistolary novels, whether it was because of her or just because they feel more personal than other books. I'm big on dialogue, and letters are just constant dialogue.

I've read her book several times and each time it means something different to me. It's hard for me to articulate. Maybe because I'm tired and lazy. But if you haven't read The Diary of Anne Frank, you definitely should.

Whenever I rave about this book to my uncultured friends they ask me why I like it so much, and I don't really know how to answer them. Maybe it's because I can relate to Anne in a way I can't really with other "characters". It helps that we have the same last name, sure. But there's just something about this girl unself-consciously delving into herself through writing like this that I always liked. I can't explain it, but it's the one book that I've never gotten sick of.

Also, one of my favorite albums of all time is inspired by it, so that helps.

To play us out, here's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" by Neutral Milk Hotel.

As If I Had Control to Begin With, Ian!

My wonderful friend Amanda and I were talking about Joy Division and the Smiths and the Cure and all of those depressing 80s bands. I like the Smiths and the Cure but I've never really gotten into Joy Division.

However, after seeing this video, by gum, I believe it's time I start checking them out.



I am a notoriously, uh, "creative" dancer. This is exemplified by Mr. Curtis above. We are basically kindred spirits in dance moves and I find this both empowering and endearing.

Be right back, downloading "She's Lost Control", "Love Will Tear Us Apart", and some How To Dance Like Someone Who Hasn't Lost Their Mind videos.

Ready for us.

30 Rock reshaped as a surprisingly convincing drama. I would see this movie.

Also, great song they used. Not crazy about Bon Iver but that is a darn good song!

Download "Creature Fear" by Bon Iver.

I believe the man has a new album coming out soon, too. It's self-titled. Pre-order here.

Brothels

This post isn't about brothels. I just felt like writing out that word. Brothels. Brothels. Brothels. Brothels.

Yeah. Now that that's out of the way, read this hilarious rant against Time Warner that Eugene Mirman posted as an ad in some NY (HOLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA) newspapers.

Laugh. Laugh until you can laugh no longer. And then when you think that you're all laughed out? No. You're not laughed out. You've got a laugh in there still and darnit you are going to let it out or you will never get to leave here. Never. This isn't like that song "Closing Time" that gets stuck in my head daily. You don't GET to go home; you can only stay here.

Thank you for your time. Good night.

Never Feel Like Doing Anything Anymore So

here is a song or four.



If your name is Christian I urge you to be careful around me because I will be singing this song the entire time that I am with you. I love this band so, so much. Check out "Back of My Mind" and "Ms. Wrong," too.



I just finished this book called Ripped yesterday by Greg Kot. It was about how the Internet is revolutionizing (or destroying, either or) the music industry. Obvious and not especially enlightening but it was a good read regardless. There was a whole Death Cab chapter which I think was one of the reasons I bought it. (Also: it was cheap, there was a chapter on Bright Eyes, and another on Arcade Fire.) I wonder what he would have said about this video, the first one ever shot "live and in one take" over the Internet.



I love this song so much. "I was raised up believing / that I was somehow unique / like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes / unique in each way you can see. / And now after some thinking / I'd say I'd rather be / a functioning cog in some great machinery / serving something beyond me."



My friend and I met these dudes on the train a few weeks ago. YEAH. I MET A BAND. THAT HAS A MUSIC VIDEO. I'm awesome, you don't have to tell me twice. They were pretty cool guys. Jury's out on the music but I'm leaning towards "funkadelic" with a side of "groovy" or perhaps "happenin'." They're playing a show in Brooklyn tomorrow night; check out more info here.

J. Biebs, And Nothing More

Biebs went behind my back and released this new perfume and subsequent commercial without alerting me first. But then I saw it, and I understood why.



I think this explains itself.

And on that day, the world was reborn from a "Someday"-less infant to a poorly edited, nonsensical, but likely sweet-smelling man. Err, waifish teenage boy, rather.

It's the Most/Least Wonderful Time of the Year, May Sweeps (NBC STYLE)

Thursday night was the season finales of both Office and my new favorite Parks and Rec. 

Office was unsurprisingly underwhelming although some of the guest stars amused me, namely James Spader (and I guess Will Arnett, just because I love him unconditonally). James Spader was actually quite fantastic as the unnerving, disturbingly persuasive managerial candidate. I don't know if his character would work full-time but, darnit, would I love to see them try.

Another point of interest or two or four in an other lackluster and annoying inconclusive finale: Ryan was really on fire. His delivery of "Oh, no, Stanley, you'll live forever" killed me, as did the whole gently deriding Jim thing. ("James.") What was the point of Jim Carrey showing up? It was nice to see Gabe finally leave but it was a bit rushed...I actually missed it while I was doing something else. And Toby is looking seriously gaunt. I'm worried about him.

The Office's inconclusive (we still don't know who's boss!) season finale gets 3 obnoxiously hilarious Jim parodies (as performed by Angela) out of 5.

Parks and Recreation has been on fire all season long, even as a midseason replacement. Thankfully it won't be getting that shaft again next season. While I found this week's episodes, sold as a bit of a two-part finale, to be less solid than last week's, I still thoroughly enjoyed them, especially the near-epic "Li'l Sebastian," which was probably as perfect to an ending as anything I've seen from any show this season. It reminded me of the good old days of The Office where there were things at stake, where the end of the season was supposed to bring up new questions as well as answers. Parks and Recreation is relatively low-key and yet its character development is so strong that they drive the plots, they are the ones causing the conflicts instead of some meaningless and manipulative plot. Tom's conflict was especially poignant and at the same time subtle enough, not made to be some big plot point to be sold on. What I love about the show is that it's not something that, like Office, needs to be promoted the heck out of to get our excitement. We come back for the characters.

And just like Ron I will miss Li'l Sebastian. I have however cried several more times than Ron has.

I'm also interested in what the proposition given to Leslie will mean for the show. Perhaps Leslie in the government, maybe as mayor, was the end game all along. It will be interesting to watch. Also excited for: more Ben x Leslie moments, Andy and April as they exit their honeymoon period, and finally meeting the original Tammy! Also I hope they play "5,000 Candles in the Wind" again because that was awesome.

I give the Parks and Rec finale episode(s) 4 and a half torches exploding in Ron's face out of 5.

Seven and One-Half Years Later

Wow. So. I've written about how much I love Beulah and specifically their finale release, Yoko, before. From that post you could probably tell that I've done quite a bit of research on the band...and yet, somehow, I had never heard this NPR segment before now.

It's always interesting to hear someone's voice for the first time. Sometimes you have expectations for how they'll sound; in Miles Kurosky's case, I was expecting a voice a bit higher, raspier, with a less confident tone. I've been listening to this band for four years and I had never heard him speak before just now. And to speak about one of my all-time favorite songs, "Me and Jesus Don't Talk Anymore"? Man. How did I miss this?

Enjoy, although I don't know that anyone reading cares about this as much as I do. It's a great song and an interesting little piece, though.

Irrelevant, but: Don't miss the season finales for The Office and Parks and Recreation tonight!

Legs like little spiders!

I love this song a lot. You will, too, I hope! "Heart It Races" by Dr. Dog.



It's a cover of the Architecture in Helsinki song. They're annoyingly twee, or cutesy for those of you who are lucky enough to not be caught up in a world where "twee" is a common term. But Dr. Dog takes their original and grounds it and makes it AWESOME SAUCE-UM. Yeah. I just went there.

I said I was going to write about Parks and Rec. I will! Probably Friday, after the FINALE I think on THURSDAY WHOOO.

The PSN is Up and Running!

After 22 days without service, the PlayStation Network is back up.

Rejoice! Go turn your PS3 on right now and download firmware 3.61, which will force you to change your password amongst other things, and celebrate by watching some Netflix or playing some LittleBigPlanet online!

I start my fancy internship this week so this weekend, which now starts on THURSDAY for me, HECK YEAH MAN, I will finally start playing Red Dead Redemption. It will be glorious.

Hope you guys managed to survive without your online PS3 gaming-ness.

Read more here.

Apologies; This Post is Dedicated to Jennifer Robertson (And Pam Beesly)

I haven't updated my blog in exactly two weeks, and for that, I am deeply sorry.

It is not due to lack of interest or even lack of ideas; instead, I just haven't had any motivation to write anything at all. I'm lazy, I'm graduating, I'm depressed, I'm tired, and I really, really want an amazing cookie.

Deepest apologies to all of my fanatical readers, for I know there are many of you. How you have managed to survive without my periodic Liz Lee rantings and awkwardly-written NBC comedy reviews is beyond my comprehension; I know that, if I was not me and instead one of you, reloading the page anxiously in the hopes of finding a brand new post as opposed to the same Office review that you've been rereading with fervor for two weeks now, I too would feel confused as to how to live my life without new FWSF posts to illuminate the darkness that is my sad, sad life.

Well, I'm here now, so. Hi!

This post is dedicated to my dear, dear friend Jenni, who has been begging me to write a post for her for awhile now. She knows this blog better than I do, arguably. She also knows me better than I know myself sometimes thanks to her FWSF knowledge. It's a little frightening, but mostly awesome.

So. I've actually had a lot to write about lately. Today I wanted to write about Parks and Stinking Recreation, aka my new favorite show ever of all time, but I don't think Jenni watches it. YOU SHOULD, JENNI! I will write about it tomorrow maybe but think Season 2/3 Office with a smaller and more consistently awesome cast.

Today I will instead talk about Pam Beesly.

I know for a fact that Jenni loves Pam. A lot of people love Pam, most notably Jim, her husband. But me? I used to not be a Pam fan whatsoever.

I think that perceptions change a lot upon second or third watch of something. On my first watch of the Office, my clear favorite was Jim (and Michael). Second time? I still rooted for Jim, obviously, but it was far more about Michael for me. Third time? Interestingly, the third time I watched season 2, and then subsequently season 3 (then for the second time), I really related to...Pam.

Before I had found her unfunny, kind of annoying, and oblivious of Jim's feelings and how much better he was for her than Roy. But once I watched season 3 from beginning to end for the second time, I really resonated with Pam. Jenna Fischer was nominated for an Emmy that season and rightfully so; Pam is so convincingly torn between what she wants to do and what she is doing, and it made her extremely powerful to me as a character. She was the most real on the show, the most sympathetic. She was the new Jim.

So, Pam, this post goes out to you and Jenni. Enjoy some Pam moments below, because not only is she sympathetic but she is also surprisingly funny, especially in season 2.

The Office: End of Days

As far as I'm concerned The Office aired its final episode this past Thursday with Steve Carell's finale, "Goodbye, Michael."

While this is not the case, as the show has been renewed and there are a few more episodes left in the season (including guest stars Will Arnett and Ricky Gervais!), this episode felt like what was the end of the series. Michael Scott was the office's (both the place and the show) central figure, and without him it just doesn't make much sense at all.

This episode was by no means perfect; I found all the subplots superfluous and annoying, and I just can't wait for Deangelo to leave. I even took issue with the way Michael handled his departure mostly, but at the end I realized that he did it in exactly the right way -- his own way. And the final scenes with Jim, Dwight, and Pam were so heart-wrenching, emotional without feeling insincere or forced. They were subtle, and they were beautiful, and they were the best things the series has done since season 3, emotionally.

These last few episodes have felt like a fitting tribute, mostly, to the end of an era. I don't expect the show to go on much longer without Michael Scott's powerful and perfect presence; while it's a great ensemble, it was always Michael that held things together, Michael that made the show feel that much more cohesive instead of just a bunch of characters playing off each other. Michael was both hilarious and tragic, something that none of the other characters grasped quite as well as he did. He will be sorely missed.

I give "Goodbye, Michael" 4 removed microphones out of 5.

Watch "Goodbye, Michael." [video TBA]

Thank You, Sony...

If you haven't already heard, the PlayStation Network (or the PS3's online service for those of you weirdos who somehow don't know that already, because I mean how could you not know that already, you're here, aren't you?) has been hacked.

Yes, Sony, a multi-million-dollar company, was hacked by some still-unknown third party. It's depressing and disturbing that such a thing is even possible. You would think that Sony, with its big bags of money all piled up in a room somewhere in their fortress of media, would have created, y'know, a STRONG SECURITY SYSTEM. But nope, apparently that wasn't a priority, and now a hacker has obtained access to every single PSN user's personal information, including credit card information. (Thankfully, security codes were not compromised. This seems almost ironic but I'm too tired right now to think about that any further to determine whether it really is irony or not. Someone tell me.)

Unfortunately, there's not much we can do. The network is still down so we can't log in and try to change our passwords. If you use the same password for your email/other important accounts as you do for the PSN, it is recommended that you change it. Yes, that would be a smart move. Do that.

I really hope the network comes back up soon, but honestly, this really makes me lose faith in Sony a little bit. I just can't believe that they created a network open enough that a random number generator (or whatever) could hack into it. That's just unacceptable. I'm not going to sell my PS3 or anything drastic like that, and it's not like I can't use it at all or anything -- although not being able to use Netflix on it or have my trophies sync is a major problem for me; I had to download Netflix on my Wii and watch Parks and Recreation in SD as opposed to glorious HD, sad face -- but it's still frustrating when one of the major selling points of the system just shuts down like this.

The service is free, so we can't expect as much as an XBox Live user would from Microsoft. However, I really hope everyone who has had to endure this ordeal can be compensated for their patience in some way. I'm not sure what a viable option would be, but I hope Sony comes up with something. A free game would be stinking awesome, though. Just saying, guys. I've been wanting to play Final Fantasy VII for awhile now. ;)

Thursday Night's All Right

Thursday's comedy block was extremely awesome. I'm a cynic and a hater and I actually really enjoyed every show of the night -- well, except the Paul Reiser Show, but I don't watch that, so.

Community was hilarious, although I kind of resent that all of those awesome little plot lines will never be expanded upon. The Office was sweet, even though it was trying really hard to make me feel that way. It was nostalgic, and I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. Season 2 will forever have a place in my heart, so I really appreciated this episode. And it made me even more sad to see Michael go.

Parks and Recreation...I can't even describe my feelings for that show in words. I spent the last two days watching all of the episodes of Season 2 that I hadn't seen. It's just a perfect television show; it's reminiscent of season 2/3 The Office, and it's so wonderful. I love EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER. Even Tom, even Jerry. (HAHA, Tom and Jerry.) The show works in relationships so subtly; last week April and Andy got married with little fanfare. This week Leslie acknowledges her feelings for Ben and it's not a big deal. The little quiet moments make this show feel realistic, moreso than the Office, and I just enjoy every minute of it.

The hour-long 30 Rock had its great moments, too, with some hilarious one-liners (ALSO THE RETURN OF DANNY, JUST PUTTING THAT OUT THERE CUZ I LOVE HIM), but overall I think the show should stick to its 30 minute roots. Also the shoehorned clips felt really, really weird. This season has already had two season finale-type episodes and it's not even over yet! The Office also played with nostalgia this week but in a less overt way, and while it was still kind of obnoxious I appreciated it a bit more than 30 Rock's lazy bag of season 1/2/3 clips.

I did, however, love the callback to Jack's classic line: "It's after 6. What am I, a farmer?" Good stuff.

So, yes. I highly recommend you start watching Parks and Recreation if you haven't, and I would suggest you watch all four shows' latest episodes. They were all worth it. Best Thursday in awhile.

Vacation Posting

I'm on Spring Break right now, so I'm feeling very lazy. Well, really, I've been feeling lazy for awhile now. Sorry.

Today's Thursday and you know what that means - a new 30 Rock (the hour long 100th episode!) and a new Parks & Rec! I woke up this morning feeling excited. It was wonderful.

Last week's Parks and Rec was so good, just a great ensemble episode with character development and heartwarming moments and blah, I'm excited for tonight's. Especially since it's called "Soulmates" and it involves Leslie being matched with someone she already knows on an online dating service. ;) Although if it's who I'm thinking it is, then why would he be on an online dating service anyway? He doesn't strike me as that kind of guy. Well, I guess I'll figure that out in less than 12 hours.

Last week's 30 Rock was good too but I just want them to resolve this TRACY IS MISSING! arc already. I hope tonight is awesome and I'm looking forward to that Condoleeza/Jack tryst being brought up again. That was mentioned in season 1, right? It killed me. Hopefully this will be a satisfying culmination.

I wonder what an hour-long 30 Rock will feel like. It seems like a weird prospect, like an hour-long episode of The Simpsons or something. Well, I guess they did have one of those, and it worked out pretty well in my opinion. So I have high hopes.

Make sure to watch Parks and Rec tonight at 9:30 EST and the 1-hour 30 Rock special at 10 EST. (Also tune in to Community at 8 EST. Don't feel obligated to watch The Office.)

Thanks, Youtube

Over the weekend I was able to go to Coachella. Okay, I wasn't there in person, unfortunately, but thanks to the advent of the Internet I was able to experience it live from the comfort of my own home.

Youtube was streaming concerts live all weekend long, and I was able to catch two great ones - Best Coast and, at 2AM Saturday, Arcade Fire. Arcade Fire also streamed one of their shows at Madison Square Garden live last year and I watched that one, too. They are truly an amazing band live and oh, how I wish I was there in person to experience that! They really put on quite a show. I watched them until 3:30, I didn't want to stop, it was just beautiful.

Best Coast was great, too, although their set was much shorter. Just like Arcade Fire, though, they're really good live; I think I'd say that they are even better live than on recording, even! Bethany's banter was awesome and she just had a ton of personality and energy, even more than she does on the album. Also, the band played a new song I'd never heard before and a cover, and both of those were worth the watch!

I don't know to feel about these streams, despite my enjoyable experiences with them. On the one hand, I got to watch Arcade Fire in concert for free! Twice! A lot of people got to see how great these bands were for the first time and are now going to check them out. And I am a thousand times more likely to try to go to an Arcade Fire/Best Coast/etc. concert in the future. On the other hand, as an artist, wouldn't you rather people pay money to see you live? Obviously watching at home isn't quite the same but it was still pretty darn good. I actually got to see them up close; at a concert there'd be a ton of other people around and I might be stuck in the back.

I don't know that people would ever stop wanting to go to concerts but streaming them is definitely making people like me less likely to try to attend something like Coachella because I know I can just watch it at home.

We'll see what happens.

Apocalypse Please

Today I visited a college and in a mock class we watched the opening to Apocalypse Now. I hadn't seen the movie in going on a year, and since reading Heart of Darkness I had sort of been wanting to rewatch it. Watching the opening again, I was just instantly reminded that this movie is a true masterpiece, much more entertaining and even insightful than the book. I can't even think of a more perfect opening at this moment. "The End" just works so masterfully, it's like it was written for this movie.

Partyin' Like It's 2008

2008 was a pretty good year for music for me. Vampire Weekend's debut album basically owned it, alongside Tokyo Police Club's debut Elephant Shell; I also discovered Band of Horses that year. It was a good time.

Today I felt a random inclination to jam to "Oxford Comma." I remember not liking it a lot when I first heard it. I mean, I liked it, but I much preferred "A-Punk," "Walcott," "Mansard Roof," "One (Blake's Got a New Face)," and "The Kids Don't Stand a Chance." I would listen to it but throughout its entirety feel antsy to hit the back button and listen to "Mansard Roof" again, or skip forward to "A-Punk."

But then the music video was released and -- see, I have a disorder known as Video Affection Syndrome. Once a song has a video accompaniment, whether it's a video or a commercial, I immediately love it more. That's what happened with "Oxford Comma." I loved the video SO MUCH that immediately my liking for the song grew and grew and grew. It's not like it's some random video, either; I legitimately love the "Oxford Comma" video on its own. Shot in one take, I find it fascinating, cool, and fun.

Check it out and I hope you have a reaction as (positively) strong as I did the first time I saw it, three years ago.



P.S. I just found out that the video was directed by Richard Ayoade, who is the amazing IT Crowd and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace actor and occasional director of such things as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Heads Will Roll" and the latest episode of Community, the great one with the My Dinner with Andre/Pulp Fiction send-ups. Awesome!

Operation Kitten Calendar

I miss Acceptable.tv. It was this awesome show created by Dan Harmon where viewers could vote on which sketches/"series" would continue onto each new episode. It was hilarious and inventive and so of course it only lasted 8 episodes.

This was my favorite "series" from the show, "Operation Kitten Calendar." Enjoy.


Operation Kitten Calendar Season 1 by TripleA297

An Explanation, A Rant, A Fuss

Yesterday I received an Anonymous comment on my last Liz Lee-related rant. Usually I address these often condescending, "I'm so superior and worthy because I'm posting anonymously on a random Internet blog"-sounding comments directly, but I want to talk about this one with the whole class.

Anonymous said...

"Allegra is an American fashion model from Miami, Florida" Case closed.

April 4, 2011 12:51 PM

Hey Anonymous! Thanks for your comment! Let me point out why I find it so hilarious, because I find it so hilarious!:

1. The quotation.

I suppose this explanation is long overdue, although I honestly feel like I gave it at some point. Even if I did, though, why is it necessary? Isn't it obvious that that's a joke?! Do you think a Floridian model would be spending her Saturday afternoons blogging about Bebe Zeva, her weeknights about Cartoon Network shows?! Really!?

If you're really that naive then I'll just be honest with you: my about me is a joke. Seriously. It's not even something I came up with on my own, it comes from the opening lines of this biography of America's Next Top Model Cycle 4 contestant Tiffany Richardson:

Tiffany Richardson is an American fashion model from Miami, Florida. She enjoys eating Popeye's spicy wings.

Look at Tiffany. She gets it, even if you didn't, Anonymous!

See? Yeah. I thought that was ridiculously stupid and funny so I just made it my About Me. I guess a joke isn't really a joke if you have to explain it but I didn't really think that I had to!

2. The implication.

So because you believe(d) that I am a model -- which is so humorous to me that I had to get up and go laugh hysterically for a good twenty minutes before I was able to function properly and continue writing -- you decided that a. my opinion was invalid b. my opinion was inaccurate c. my opinion was biased because all models are born with a distaste for inauthentic, obnoxious hipsters who masquerade as "nerds" for the money and/or LULZ?

I don't have the scientific evidence to back me up on option C but I can say with much confidence that all three options are sad and wrong-headed (except for the part about Liz being an inauthentic and obnoxious hipster who masquerades as a "nerd" for the money and/or LULZ. Y'know, just in case you didn't pick up on that, either). I think it's pretty great that you thought that because I was a model my opinion about Liz Lee was worthless and stupid and wrong. Well, listen, I'm not a model, so what's your excuse now?

Or maybe you just have an irrational hatred of Miami? That could be it. After all, what other reason would you have for quoting the "Florida" part too? I can't say that I've ever been to Florida, but Miami seems like a decent enough place. Obviously if Foals thought it was worthy enough to write a seriously awesome song about, then it must not be so bad. Why the hate, Anon? Why the hate?

Whether it was because you thought I was a model, a Floridian, or both, overall you seem to think there is a link between that and "stupidity," which, in your crazy foreign language that doesn't use the Roman alphabet and thus is utterly unintelligible to me and my ethno-centric ways, means that I don't like Liz Lee. Hate to break it you, sir or madam, but a LOT of people don't like Liz Lee. Not everyone falls for her heavily scripted, label-tastic antics they way you do! Crazy, isn't it?

Man, now all of my angry feelings of hatred towards Liz are bubbling up again. Curse you Anonymous! ...and thanks for commenting.

P.S. I'll admit that some of my hatred for her is rather irrational, but then, you should also admit that some of your appreciation of her is irrational, too. From an objective standpoint.

Regularly scheduled blogging to start up again tomorrow.

I Don't Know What I Know But I Know I Don't Like It

So I'm writing a research paper about Tao Lin and the influence of impersonal technology on his writing (namely his poetry). I've learned a lot about him through my research; for instance I've learned that while I really, really like his poetry, I don't really care for anything else he has done. I've paged through Richard Yates before and was not a fan of the minimalist, not-sure-if-ironic style; somehow this same style is far more appealing to me in his first-person poems. I appreciate their stream-of-consciousness style and it feels a lot more sincere and is thus a lot more endearing when it comes from the horse's mouth. Tao's fictional characters are not as easy to feel for; the writing is so flat there's no emotion.

Anyway. Other things I've learned about today, thanks to Tao: Bebe Zeva. It's weird but at one point in my life, a year or so ago, I was very into reading teenage fashion blogs, especially the excellent Style Rookie by my main girl Tavi. Tavi is going on 15 and is extremely tiny and has a cool voice and likes Freaks and Geeks and I just want her to be friends with me. Sadly the likelihood of that is impossibly low. Like, negative infinity. This is not all completely irrelevant, don't worry, although honestly irrelevance is what you should come to expect from me by now, 151 posts in. Bebe Zeva, if you clicked the link I so politely left for you, is also a fashion blogger; what's different about her and Tavi, though, is that while Style Rookie is focused on more than just fashion (read Tavi's recent, very introspective and overall great post about this here), Bebe is kind of all about marketing herself. She just posts pictures of herself and talks about them. Tavi doesn't always post outfit photos, and while Bebe doesn't solely talk about herself she does always somehow bring the topic back to her. I mean, it's her blog, so whatever, they're self-absorbed on principle. But it's markedly different than the style of the maturing Tavi. (Bebe and I, by the way, are the same age. Crazy.)

How is any of this related to Tao? Tao and his wifey Megan Boyle made a documentary about Bebe, just following her around with a computer. Bebe has a very girlish voice and seems way more like a teenager on tape. Tavi also seems young but again, it's different. I could see Bebe being a high schooler. Tavi? Eh.


BEBE ZEVA (TRAILER 1) from MDMAfilms on Vimeo.

So why is Bebe so special that she gets a movie about her? Personally I would love a documentary about Tavi but whatever, maybe I actually wouldn't, maybe they both would be equally as dull. Because this movie, sorry Tao, looks rather uninteresting. I don't know, I guess I find Bebe fascinating if I'm still writing about her, but maybe I'm just more fascinated by Tao's interest in her. Because it stretches beyond this.

Another thing I came upon during my research that I only just connected after reading extensively about Bebe is that Tao is very close with some guy known only as Carles, who is the main blogger on some extremely obnoxious and even slightly offensive to my precious little eyeballs blog called Hipster Runoff. I only came across Tao and Carles' connection while skimming Google headlines; I didn't pursue the matter. But then I found this extensive, slightly disturbing, and overall kind of pointless article about Carles, written by Bebe.

In it she details at extreme length her burgeoning relationship with Carles. It's interesting because it totally paints her as annoying and a little pathetic; Bebe is very self-deprecating. She's also hard to get. Maybe because I had never read about her before but on her original blog, a Wordpress, she has a long, rambling post about a "family" trip with her sister, her "brother," and her "dad," Travis. Apparently Travis is actually her friend? And I'm still not quite sure if her "little brother" is actually related to her. I feel kind of stupid about not knowing any of this for sure but that's not totally my fault. Ugh, anyway. Bebe is kind of sympathetic if you look at the FAQ on her tumblr as she writes about her mom's health problems but this article is just...ugh.

The creepy part about this is that it's been speculated that Tao Lin is actually Carles. I found this out after recognizing the name and googling its connection, again, with Tao. While there is a lot of evidence against this theory I'm still not totally sure. After all, in the article, Bebe receives a package with a return address of "Tao Lin," a package that was supposed to be sent by Carles. It's all kind of a vague mystery and I'm really, really confused by it all.

Before I read that article, or maybe concurrently, who remembers events sequentially anymore, I read that Bebe had won a chat with Tao. Yeah, I think I read them at the same time. If Tao sent Bebe a package before talking to her then he must have known something about her? Surely if he saw her occasionally creepily sexualized photos on his "friend's" website he would know of her? And then she happens to win this chat with him. And there's still the possibility that he IS Carles, and that really they'd talked for a long time, and he always asks her about her mother, and oh God just read the chat, I don't know what to think about any of this, ugh.

Some think that Richard Yates is based off of the relationship between Bebe and Carles, which is strange and upset stomach-making if you know what the book is about. It's even more nauseating if Carles really is Tao! And I don't even know, I need more of a reason for Tao making this movie about her. They had talked a couple of times, the first time I guess being in that chat, but then he just found her interesting enough to make a movie about her? And he's in the movie himself. Watch that trailer. I like Tao's voice. ...uh. Yeah. I sort of don't even know where I'm going with this anymore but I guess the bottom line is that I don't get Bebe Zeva. I don't understand her at all. And now I want to analyze how now she has a blogspot instead of a Wordpress because she and Tao talk about that fact in their chat and man, man, man, I really need to write my paper. I've written more about Bebe Zeva than I have about Tao, than I have my entire paper, and I find this kind of inspiring but also kind of depressing and I should do my work. So. Puzzle this out for me.

EDIT: God, it just doesn't end. This extremely biased article from Vice makes me once again almost-symapthize for Bebe. She's just a normal person, really, who's trying way, way, way too hard to make herself known on the Internet. We could psychoanalyze her all night but it's not worth it. She's no different than any of the Urban Outfitters obsessives at my school, her pretensions and obvious minor web fame aside. She just really, really wants to be noticed. I wonder if Tao is exploiting her, and I wonder if he's doing it knowingly. I wonder when Bebe will realize it.

I find Tao fascinating but I don't care much for him outside of his poetry. "i am unemployed" is just a great poem, but I don't know, I wonder if he's a fluke, I wonder if you are a little bit happier than i am  was his only collection ever written from a place of humorous sincerity. The rest of his work is just so gimmicky; he's now trying so, so hard for attention and putting less emphasis on the actual writing. It's really too bad, because he is a talented poet. I wonder what the future holds for him. I wonder a lot.

Is it better to be on or be good? ("No Color" by the Dodos Album Review)

Thankfully, on the Dodos' No Color, they manage to do both.

That line is from album standout "Good," a 6-minute song that recalls the unpredictability of 2008 Visiter's "Joe's Waltz," a song with two distinct halves. While "Good" is a bit more polished, I think that its similarity to that song speaks for the entire album's style: it is a return to the form of Visiter but with more sheen and editing.

While the Dodos uncut are probably the best kind of Dodos, this actually works in the album's favor. The songs overall are much more concise than those on the band's three previous albums, but they also manage not to lose steam and are just great all the way through. "Sleep" is under 4 minutes long, nearly unheard of from the Dodos, but with its catchy chorus and featured spot from Neko Case, who also sings on "Good" and, amongst others, "Don't Try and Hide It," another highlight, the song quickly becomes one of the most memorable album.

"I cannot sleep/I cannot think/I cannot dream," sings Meric Long on "Sleep;" those lines speak well for the album, which is at first hyperactive and then, almost abruptly, sleepy and more introspective. Opener "Black Night" is raucous; 5 tracks later we have the decidedly hush "When Will You Go," which features Long's falsetto and has been bandied by critics as a highlight. The song reminds one more of Time to Die with its obvious production sheen but imbues it with the same spirit that embodies "Black Night."

The more mellow latter half of the album is not as immediately enticing, but the songs alternate between beautiful and interesting. While you'll love "Sleep" from the first play, a song like "When Will You Go" will command more listening time if only so you can discover its intricacies and attractive spots that are less readily enticing.

A song that is a personal favorite and reminds one of debut Beware of the Maniacs is "Hunting Season," which sounds bound for commercial or indie movie inclusion. Little oddities like this really show the band's ability to combine their intense percussion of old with their electric guitars and normalcy of late. It has its feet planted firmly in both camps, and the combination is interesting if subtle. It probably won't stand out for other people as much as it does for this reviewer, but the Maniacs vibe is much appreciated in a world that seems to think the band started with Visiter.

"Companions" is a real grower but ends up being a stand-out track. The classical-sounding guitar in the beginning really makes the song, which sounds laden with reverb and other production effects that you wouldn't really hear on their first two albums. It's the most interesting track on the album, stylistically; it sounds quite unlike anything else the band has done before. It's an experimental sort of song that really pays off and shows off the band's talent and versatility.

Overall, No Color combines the best of the band's previous albums to make a holistic, interesting, and engaging package that you will want to listen to again and again. Unlike Time to Die, it's not at all a disappoint. The Dodos still have plenty of color, and they are both "on" and "good.

No Color gets 4 and a half Neko Case guest vocals out of 5.

Download: "Good" (It's an .m4a so be prepared for that)
Also check out: "Sleep," "Black Night," "Companions"
Buy No Color here.

P.S. Sorry this review was suckish but I'm tired. The Dodos deserve better than this. Please check them out.
P.P.S. also lawl I really love "Good." The past two post titles have come from it. It's awesome.

Could you be certain what you've been searching won't be late?

Still digging the Dodos' No Color. I hope to get a review up before the end of the month. Senior year wasn't supposed to be this STRESSFUL, second semester!

SXSW was last week (or so) and the Dodos were there livening up the joint. Thankfully, AOL taped the whole thing for us non-goers to indulge in. Here's their entire, No Color-heavy set. (Can I just say that, if you have time to play both B-side "All Night" AND Time to Die's "Longform," couldn't you find time for something from Visiter? You have four albums out now, guys. Really. You got to indulge us fans a bit more.)

Cartoon Network Upfronts

Yesterday Cartoon Network, the channel that reigned supreme over my youth but then went to the crapper when it started showing LIVE-ACTION SHOWS, held its annual upfronts.

What happened of interest? Well, for one, Genndy Tartakovsky's (Dexter's Lab) Sym-Bionic Titan was canceled, effectively killing what was probably the most original cartoon on television. I wasn't a raging fangirl but every episode that I saw of it just struck me as being some incredibly inventive; it's certainly the only animated show on TV whose main character barely talks. It reminds me of the extremely popular Samurai Jack for this reason, which was also made by Genndy; however, I felt like this show could be slightly more accessible, maybe because of its setting. However, I guess the complicated nature of its plot probably hindered it, and so now the only decent cartoons left on the channel are Adventure Time and Regular Show, which you need to watch because they're great.

Some new cartoons were given premiere dates, like the godawful Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, which originated on the canceled Cartoonstitue project as "Uncle Grandpa." It was HORRIBLE. I don't see a bright future for the show, which doesn't have a set air date yet, but I guess it's possible that it will appeal to the Adult Swim crowd, maybe?

Speaking of Adult Swim, they passed on the disturbing, unfunny, obnoxious Problem Solvers -- smart move. Would have been better had their sister CN not picked it up instead! This show will be encroaching upon my beauteous Monday Night awesome cartoons black with its garish colors and Flash animation. You can watch the pilot on Youtube. I warn you, though, it could cause you to develop epilepsy. Also it sucks, a lot.

Other things in the works are a bunch of boring looking superhero shows (Green Lantern stands out; I always liked how he was black in Justice League Unlimited) and the Looney Tunes Show, which is about the Looney Tunes characters living in suburbia and having suburbia-related problems. Aside from the ugly CGI Road Runner shorts, it actually looks pretty decent. I like its style and its premise.

Finally this show has been in development for awhile now and will finally be premiering with Looney Tunes in May: The Amazing World of Gumball. I had high expectations because of the ADORABLE character designs but this preview didn't exactly wow me. Gumball is pretty cute, though.




So, that's that. We'll see how these shows do. It looks like Cartoon Network won't be heading into any Golden Age again any time soon, but at least we still have AT and RS. And I'm excited for Looney Tunes and Gumball, no matter what.

Lovely Tina, Tina Fey

So I've been listening to No Color a lot lately. Love it. I hope to get a review out by the end of this month.

But right now I'd just like to post this link to an interesting article I read about a presumed "Tina Fey backlash." I'm a huge 30 Rock, and thus by extension Tina, fan, and so I found this article particularly engrossing and thought-provoking. A lot of points are brought up that made me really consider her role as a feminist figure, if she even is one.

When she was a head writer on SNL they always made it a point to say that she wrote some of the dirtiest jokes, after all. It's not like she really powered ahead in female characterizations on the show. It was great to have her as head writer but how else did she innovate then?

And 30 Rock is about a female showrunner whose show is called The Girlie Show. I just used the word "show" three times in that sentence. ANYWAY, despite this fact, from the very first episode it's taken over by a guy, which was not Liz's choice but not something she's neccessarily fought against. The rest of the writing staff is either male or asexually female, aside from Liz, who herself is a little pathetic. I love her and I respect her and she's one of my favorite characters of all time, but Liz isn't exactly a great role model for girls. She's not terrible, and she's easily the best on the show, but in the grand scheme of things? I don't.

Anyway, read the article and let me know how you feel. Here's the link.

I Approve of Your Butterflies, Alana Lee

I'm sure you've heard of Rebecca Black's "Friday." Really, does it need introduction?



This video is at once revolting, off-putting, and hilariously awesome. My life increased in hilarity by about 150% after my first three viewings. And now, so will yours.

If you are of the opposing opinion that "Friday" is actually one of the worst songs ever created then I'm sorry that you are either 1. blind or 2. a sad person. "FRIDAY" MAKES THE WORLD GO 'ROUND. WE SO EXCITED GURL.

And then there is this.



This song is actually kind of decent but Alana Lee's constant scowling and the STINKING HILARIOUS climax towards the end makes me die laughing. "YES ALANA LEE WE UNDERSTAND YOUR BUTTERFLIES AND WE APPROVE." Too much. This song has been getting some play as the company's only decent song.

Ah, the company, you ask? What is the company? The company would be Ark Music Factory, which produces all of these songs and videos. (There are a LOT of them. Seriously. A LOT.) Basically you have to undergo a lengthy process to be accepted into their company; then, I BELIEVE (don't quote me on this), you have to pay them a fee and they will make you a song and video. They will also market you, although they didn't do such a great job of that. Did you know "Friday" has been around for a month but only has been popular for a week? Yeah, excellent, Ark. You know how to get your stuff out there, for sure.

 Well, there you have it. I'm sure both of those songs are stuck in your head now, like they are in mind. And as for me, well, I gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal.

Girls Girls Girls

I used to not like listening to music sung by girls. I'm not sure why, but for some reason I just did not like female-fronted bands or female singers of any variety for the most part. I used to be vaguely misogynistic despite my being a girl, so maybe that had something to do with it. Thankfully, I've grown up and out of that strange mindset and now I dig female singers as much as male singers. Yay for personal growth!

As I became less and less generalizing it seemed like female-fronted bands became more and more popular and mainstream. We grew out of our weird, awful hard rock/nouveau boy band pop punk phase and made some room for both girl singers and bands of these genres and others. Let's look at some of them, good and bad:



Paramore

This is one of, if not the single most popular mainstream girl-led band. Paramore started out back in '06-ish but hit it big with their album RIOT!, which is a pretty fun title, I must concede. People, girls and guys alike, really liked their take on the whole pop punk phenom that was starting to peter out by the time they hit it big. Lead singer Hayley seems to be the standard amongst girl-fronted rock bands these days; she's the frontwoman and really the face of the band, and groups with girls as the lead singer are generally compared to Paramore by default.

While I'm not a big fan by any means, the thing I like about these guys is while they're undeniably "emo"-tinged pop they're willing to be a bit more inventive with their sound than, say, Fall Out Boy. Check out their massively-popular single "The Only Exception" for a sense of what I mean. (By the way "That's What You Get" is not only my favorite by them, not that I know that many, but it's also one of my favorites to play in Rock Band 2. Just sayin'.)

Similar Artists: Hey Monday stands out as one that is particularly derivative. They're like Paramore-lite; they boast a girl singer, less notable than Hayley Williams with her naturally-colored hair, surrounded by a bunch of guys. The difference is that they're much less energetic; they may have a similar image but the similarities really end there. One friend compared them to Taylor Swift, which is probably not what they're going for but is, sadly for them, a pretty good comparison.

Also, Tegan and Sara have their punky energy and are even more talented -- and they're just two people! Also, I'm a twin so I'm biased. 



Best Coast

This is a niche that has recently become popular - 50s/60s-inspired surf and/or trippy pop. Best Coast stands out as one particularly notable example; they've achieved fame in the blogosphere and even had their music featured on the UK Skins, which I fangirled about a couple of posts ago. (It was Liv's episode if you want to check it out.) Much like Paramore lead singer/guitarist Bethany is such a strong central figure that you sometimes forget that this isn't a solo project. The songs have a really defined sense of character: Bethany is a bit pathetic in her misadventures in relationships. To cope she hangs out with her cat and does drugs. It's all good on the Best Coast -- okay, not literally, but all of their songs are upbeat and take you back to a simpler time. Check out songs like "Crazy For You" and "Each and Every Day" for a sense of both their poppy charm and sad sack lyricism.

Similar Artists: The Dum Dum Girls are another 60s-sounding band making huge waves in the underground these days. While Best Coast has a bit of a modern edge to them, these ladies sound like they were transplanted from the early 60s. It's pretty nifty, as the kids might have said back then. (What would I know about that though?)



Amy Winehouse

You may think that this woman is irrelevant these days. Since her 2007 album Back to Black, she's spiraled downwards, walking around barefoot until finally fading away into obscurity. So, yes, fine, I will see your "Amy is out of the limelight," but I will raise you a "Without Amy you wouldn't have Adele." And why is this important? Adele is the latest British import who has risen to the top of the charts with her soul-inspired pop, and I'd argue that we wouldn't have her without Amy Winehouse. She may have been the Charlie Sheen of her day (oh, haven't you heard? He's crazy. Maybe you didn't know, I mean, it's not like every single person in America and possibly the entirety of Europe, yes, the entirety of Europe, this includes Luxembourg, has been talking about him incessantly for going on four weeks now, no, it's not like that at all) but "Rehab" alone shows just how talented she is. She's a trendsetter, although thankfully not in the world of hair fashion.


Similar Artists: Adele aside, Duffy. Personally I don't believe either of these women are as talented as Amy Winehouse but I guess it's subjective. I don't think they're untalented, though, of course, although Duffy reminds me of Kristen Chenowith to a degree that I'm not comfortable with.




Warpaint

Okay, mostly I just love these ladies. They're young and yet they have this really mature sound, as if they've been working to perfect it for so long. Their name has been tossed around the indie scene for a year or two now, and last year they released an album of songs that mistily oozed into each other. They are shoegaze in the least-obnoxious way; they have a sense of humor, a youthful quality about them, and yet they still manage to enshroud everything they do in fog and make it work so perfectly. I wax poetic about them like crazy, and I mean that in a literal way, okay? Thank you.

These girls rock when it's necessary and then take you out of this world. It's really quite something.

Similar artists: Wye Oak is a definite contemporary. They recently released their album Civilian to great reviews, including an "A" from the wonderful AV Club. Their song "Take It In," from their previous album The Knot, reminds me a lot of Warpaint's most spellbinding songs, like "Set Your Arms Down;" it's almost cult-like in its repetitiveness (in Warpaint's song's case, the chanting; in this song's case, the drums) and it's just transcendent of all things. It pierces the inner machinations of your mind! Deep.

While these ladies stand out the most to me, they are hundreds of other examples to choose from. I had to force myself not to start ranting about how great First Aid Kit is, and I was even tempted to mention Miley Cyrus. Sometimes you have to know your boundaries.

Also I'm leaving out notable musicians and icons like Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and others, but hey, we always read about them, don't we? Once in awhile Warpaint needs a turn.

What are your favorite female-fronted bands/musicians?

P.S. Why do I always write so much about music? And by "so much" I mean the posts that I write about music always take me far longer than any other posts -- I wrote this over the course of two days, for example. (And my Beulah/Weezer "epic" took 6 hours.) Ever notice that? It's interesting.

P.P.S. The Dodos' No Color comes out today! Buy it! Expect a review sometime this week or next, whenever my copy gets here!

Lisa Ling-ering

Whenever I become aware of someone or something it seems to envelop my everything, regardless of whether I want it to or not.

Weirdly, this is what happened with Lisa Ling. Sure, I'd heard of her, but once her sister got holed up in Korea last year and she was on TV everywhere crying about it (as she should have been, of course!) it seemed as if she never went away.

And now on Oprah's surprisingly decent/entertaining new TV channel, OWN, Lisa has her very own show called Our America with Lisa Ling, which is a sort of documentary series that covers taboo topics; so far she's done sex offenders, transgendered people, for example.

Last week's episode was, interestingly, about the idea (movement) of "praying the gay away." It's being rerun right this very minute, actually, with a follow-up airing afterwards. It's a very enthralling subject, and to see these people recognize the fact that they've had these attractions and yet deny them so vehemently is something that I don't think I can ever really understand.

I love watching specials about subjects like these. May I recommend National Geographic documentary specials (like the ones on the Amish and Mail-Order Brides) and MTV's True Life if you, too, are interested in these little-covered areas of society?

I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You

My love for Pokemon is eternal. It is everlasting. It is white-hot. It is glorious.

I finally got my copy of Pokemon Black yesterday and holy rhombus, that opening is spectacular. Easily the best Pokemon opening ever (objectively, anyway). For a second there I thought I had perhaps been shipped the wrong game...this was sweeping, epic JRPG-quality stuff.

I'm itching to play more of the game right now but I have boat loads of homework. Here's the opening so you can watch it yourself.

Conundrums

So normally I love being a baby. Okay, I'm 17, which is pretty far removed from being a baby, but I'm still younger than the majority of my friends. My birthday's in December (HEY YO) so while everyone else is able to vote or buy cigarettes or whatever the heck else an 18 year old can do by the end of senior year, I, alas cannot. This isn't usually a point of concern for me; as I said, I love being the youngest one around, as if it gives me more of an excuse to act immature and idiotic. But today, almost immediately after talking about internships with my sister (at my school in order to graduate seniors have to get an internship which they do in lieu of going to class for a month or so) I go on Kotaku and see this:

Kotaku Looking for Eager Interns in NYC

Joy! Glee! Happiness! Other positively-associated emotions! I love Kotaku, and I've been hoping that they'd post something like this for, like, a year now.

Aspiring writers: Kotaku is bringing in another round of editorial interns! Do you…
• Live in the New York City metro area?

I live a train ride away from NYC! Huzzah! Everything is looking great so far until, so anticlimactically, I reach a stumbling block.

• Are you over 18?

...curses. Over 18? I'm not even a day away from 18. I'm barely 17! How can an inanimate number, so minuscule in the grand scheme of things, crush my dreams so swiftly?

And then I realize, you know, this bulleted list is not over. Surely, being 18 is an important aspect (not that it should be) but look at the other points of "requirement":

• Want to learn how to work in the games press?
• Have a laptop and a better-than-average command of English? (Better than us, I'm saying?)
• Maybe, kind of, sort of heard of a few videogames?

All three of these points are readily applicable to me! I love video games, even if I'm not someone who plays them constantly. In fact, much of the time I am more interested in gaming news, and so Kotaku is so perfect for me. Obviously it's not just a site run by writers who like talking about games instead of playing them (not that that is necessarily true of me, either) but writing about video games, and just writing in general, is one of my admittedly few passions, and so, in sum: I really need this stinking internship. I more than just want it, I honestly think I need it. How can I breathe without Kotaku?! How can I live?! (I'm a little insane, but you should know that already.)

So, even if they throw out my application because I am not some arbitrary number that really should have no bearing on the matter when I'm giving free reign to do as I please instead of going to school starting the third week of May, I am going to apply for this internship. We'll see how that goes.

In other news, Pokemon Black and White was released here in the USA yesterday. I still haven't gotten it but it should be coming soon...not that I'll have time to play it :( Senior year is surprisingly busy.

Check out this review by IGN (I'm not a particularly huge fan of them/their reviews but whatever):

Hey Arnold Post of Eternal Win

If you didn't know, the entirety of Hey Arnold! is available on Netflix Streaming. You should watch it right now. I especially recommend what I believe to be the best episode of the show, "Helga on the Couch." You know that Very Special Episode feature over at the AV Club? If I worked there and could write a column for that feature I would totally write about this one. Maybe.

So go watch it. I leave you with this cool "Trivial Facts" version of it that I found on Youtube.



On an unrelated note, why is the best series of The IT Crowd not available on Instant Streaming?! I want to watch "The Work Outing" darn it! That's another Very Special Episode right there. So funny.

Oscars 2011: How Did I Do?

Last night's Oscars were easily the worst in years. YEARS. I wasn't a fan of them last year, despite my love for Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, but that seemed hilarious and amazing in comparison to this year's lifeless and predictable show.

Anne Hathaway wins for "Best Effort" with her likable enthusiasm and had she been hosting by herself, thus being given much more to do than she was last night, I would have enjoyed the show more. But James Franco was there, too, and as much as I enjoy James Franco he absolutely failed as host. I don't know whether he was stoned, tired, or "nervous" (psssh, whatever), but he was terrible. My head bro in charge Rob Sheffield has this theory:

Come on: James Franco was kind of brilliant last night. He treated the Oscars like his own avant-garde conceptual art project, like the way he went on General Hospital for kicks and giggles. Like, what if an insanely pretty boy got up on TV in front of a billion people, and did nothing but smirk and squint and stare off into the distance and look embarrassed to be there? What if he barely said a word, just contemplating his own hotness and flashing his John-Mayer-post-lobotomy grin? What a bold statement on modern alienation! Like the tragic hero of Jean Cocteau’s Orphic Trilogy, he stood trapped behind a mirror, unable to make human contact, cursed to face his own reflection alone. Duuuude! I hope he got at least a B+ for that in his “Media Tedium Strategies” seminar.

Not buying it, Rob, but nice try. Sometimes we forget that James Franco and Lady Gaga are completely different beasts, in that James Franco's life is not completely fabricated for entertainment. I mean, we don't know this for sure, considering he's kind of enigmatic, but I'm pretty certain that James Franco is still a human being who takes life slightly less seriously than most.

Another horrible moment was Melissa Leo's obnoxious speech. God, she seemed fake, and I mean, I don't even hate her but she just wouldn't stop, man. HAI-HAI THAT OSCAR WAS YOURS BBY YOU WERE ROBBED <3 In spite of myself/hypocritically I'm a big advocate for GOOD child actors, and while I haven't seen True Grit (I saw some of the original though!) she seemed amazing in it. HAI-HAI 2012! Actually, no, I want Chloe Moretz to win. She rocks.

Also, the In Memoriam was painful with Celine Dion's wailing of Michael Jackson's favorite song. How could they leave out Corey Haim?! He was a good actor, man! Lucas!

Anyway, terrible hosting, Melissa Leo, and the general bland predictability of it all, which I'll get to, aside, the show managed to have its share of good bits. Kirk Douglas brought the kind of wacky, "does he know what he's doing right now?" kind of hilarity that I love about the Oscars with his extremely long stay on the stage. Norm Macdonald quipped on his Twitter (which was plugged, by the way, much less than I thought it'd be at the show and yet still had a presence in my house as my dad read us Tweets during breaks): "By the time the dead montage starts, Kirk Douglas will be in it." Black humor. Killing it, Norm.

I also liked the Auto-Tune the Movies thing by the Gregory Brothers, whom I adore (yes, in italics). That was probably the most amusing thing of the night for me, other than Kirk. What else was funny? Um. I liked David Seidler's speech for The King's Speech. I also loved Billy Crystal. Weirdly enough I still have vivid memories of his hosting gig back in '03, especially that opening montage. Oh, the good old days. Billy got a standing ovation when he came on stage, and it's obviously because everyone in the audience (and at home) was praying to L. Ron Hubbard or Jehovah or whatever for him to take over for the rest of the night.

Okay, so the show was crud, but the most important thing is really who took home the little gold naked guy. I made my predictions earlier in a really boring post that you probably didn't read, so let's see how I did!

• Best Picture: MY PREDICTION: The Social Network. WINNER: The King's Speech. Okay, this was wishful thinking on my part but MAN, am I mad. Look, I'm sure The King's Speech is a wonderful thing, and maybe I'm just crazy (crazy for you baaabyyy), but I think Best Picture should MEAN something. The movie should have a greater message for it to truly be the best picture of the year. It should be innovative (note: this point is highly contradictory to everything the Academy stands for), it should be something that truly STANDS THE HECK OUT. And maybe The King's Speech does that. But do you think we'll remember it next year? I still remember No Country for Old Men. I remember Crash, although that's because of how mad it makes me. I even remember Titanic. On the same note, I always forget who won these past two years even though Hurt Locker and Slumdog were pretty fresh, so I guess I'm a big hypocrite. On the bright side, as Steven Spielberg said, losers are in the company of stinking Citizen Kane. Enough said. (And by the way, my SUBJECTIVE choice for Best Picture is easily Toy Story 3. Objectively, it's Social Network. I think too many voters are emotional and that helped because I'm sure that The King's Speech is more "likable" in many ways than Social Network with its anti-hero of a main character.)
• Best Director: MY PREDICTION: David Fincher. WINNER: Tom Hooper. OKAY THIS IS COMPLETE AND TOTAL IDIOCY. IDIOCY. ABSOLUTELY. David Fincher is WHY his film succeeds. IT IS COMPLETELY IMBUED WITH HIS VOICE. Who the crud is Tom Hooper?! Who is he? King's Speech had great PERFORMANCES, and while directing is part of that I find it hard to believe that any of those movies nominated are more synonymous with their director than Finchy. I even think Christopher Nolan, who stupidly wasn't nominated, would have been worthy; Inception would be much worse off without him. But NOOO, IT WAS TOM STINKING HOOPER. Whatever. I'm too young to develop an ulcer.
• Best Actor: MY PREDICTION: Colin Firth. WINNER: Colin Firth. I was right! Yay me! Colin Firth can charm the pants off anybody, male or female, and I'm happy for him. However, I was rooting for Jesse or even Javier Bardem. All of those actors seemed very worthy, but Jesse's performance is the one that I still think about even now. Those courtroom scenes were amazing. I'm sure Colin is very deserving, though; he's the main reason why I want to see that movie. Also I like how he thanked Tom Ford, who directed A Single Man for which he was nominated last year. Did he even mention Hooper?
• Best Actress: PREDICTION: Natalie Portman. Winner: Natalie Portman. 2 right! Look, I thought she was good. I loved her in The Professional, back when she was 11. I love that movie. I didn't love Black Swan, but she was in every single scene and really carried it; I thought she deserved it. Nicole Kidman's role, by the way, in Rabbit Hole seemed extremely over-the-top, and she fails at that American accent. No offense.
• Best Supporting Actor: PREDICTION: Christian Bale. WINNER: Bale. Method is as method does, or something to that effect. Yay, Christian Bale!
• Best Supporting Actress: PREDICTION: Melissa Leo. WINNER: Leo. I rambled about this up there but in my prediction I added "Idealistically, Hailee Steinfeld." Blergh.
• Best Foreign Film: P: In A Better World. W: In A Better World. Heck yeah, that would be 4. Told you these things were predictable!
• Best Animated Film: P: Toy Story 3. W: TS3. DUH. Must say, this was the strongest crop in years. Each of these movies should have been nominated for Best Picture. Screw Inception and Winter's Bone/The Kids Are All Right. (Not that I didn't like them or don't want to see them, of course.)
• Best Documentary: P: Exit Through the Gift Shop. W: Inside Job. LAME. I was pumped for Banksy to come out and actually entertain me, but nope, they had to give it to this movie made by two extremely boring people. At least a minority won something for what was the very first time that night (and possibly the last), as one of the directors was Asian.
• Best Original Screenplay: P: Inception. W: The King's Speech. That was a stupid prediction on my part. I said that I had "no idea" and I really didn't. I think I just guessed Inception because Nolan created this entire world, basically. The dialogue was atrocious, though, and The King's Speech seemed to have an entertaining script. That scene they showed for Geoffrey Rush's performance was funny. And David Seidler, as I said, gave a good speech. HOW FITTING HAW HAW *guffaws*
• Best Adapted Screenplay: P: The Social Network W: The Social Network. Heck yeah. Nothing beats this movie's script, man. I liked Aaron Sorkin's closing line about how his daughter's guinea pig should respect him now that he has an Oscar. Such a writer, that guy.
• Best Editing: P: The Social Network W: The Social Network. Awesome.
• Best Visual Effects: P: Inception W: Inception. Of course!
• Best Song: P: "The one from 127 Hours" ("If I Rise") W: "We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3. That was a surprise. YAY TOY STORY 3. Can you believe that "You've Got a Friend in Me" didn't win? Insanity. I still barely remember this song but man, those other songs were terrible. Especially the one from Tangled. Ugh.
• Best Score: P: The Social Network W: The Social Network I said that my idealistic choices were Inception or How to Train Your Dragon but I actually really like this movie's score. It's the only one I could remember!
• Best Cinematography: P: True Grit W: Inception Uh, okay.
• Best Sound Mixing: P: Inception W: Inception Mmhmm.
• Best Sound Editing: P: Inception W: Inception Yep. Sound editing seems like a very tough job. There were so many sounds in this movie.
• Best Costume Design: P: The King's Speech W: Alice in Wonderland. Oscar winner Alice in Wonderland. ...Huh?
• Best Art Direction: P: Inception W: Alice in Wonderland Two-time Oscar winner Alice in Wonderland. Wow. (I must say that it had nice art direction, though. A little garish, but still.)
• Best Makeup: P: The Wolfman W: The Wolfman Yay. Oscar winner The Wolfman. Haha.
• Best Live Action Short: P: The Confession W: God of Love God of Love looked pretty cool, and they guy gave a fun speech. That was his stinking college thesis. Jealous. The Confession also looks good, though, so I picked a good random choice.
• Best Animated Short: P: Day & Night W: The Lost Thing I heard this was really good but I still love Day & Night :(
• Best Documentary Short: P: Killing in the Name W: Strangers No More Whatever. Looked sort of cool but also looked like it was about how white people are the sole saviors of minorities. Eh.

So my tally is 12 out of 24 correct. That would be an F. I suck at this. I think I'll stick to my day job.

"Say-GUH!"

I was browsing GAF yesterday and found this really interesting article and accompanying thread from the 90s. It's an interview with the then-president of SEGA of America. Very prescient and a good read.

They're scans so you should just read it on the thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?s=7ac3d76ef3a68bd11eed2a0ee3bc5608&t=422270

I always wonder how my life might be different if Sega never exited the console war. It's quite sad that they lost so badly, too, especially since the Dreamcast is now looked upon so fondly. Even then, it was liked, I think; Sony just was a tough competitor. The Dreamcast couldn't stand a chance against the PS2 with its DVD player (and better reputation; after the Sega Saturn, Sega's brand name was so damaged in this country that the Dreamcast was arguably screwed from the start).

It's especially sad when you realize that all of this could have been avoided had the higher-ups over in Japan not been so negligent of their American counterpart. Maybe Japan was ready for the Saturn (not that it did so hot there), but the Genesis was still riding high over here and could have lasted another year or two. Reading about the mismanagement back then and knowing full-well what the aftermath was is so sad.

Especially, if you read the thread, when you find out about the massive mess-up that was the Saturn's launch in this country! It was supposed to come out on "Sega Saturday," and the PS1 was going to come out a week afterwards. However, at that year's E3, the president (Tom Kalinske, who is the guy interviewed) announced that that was a ruse and the Saturn was immediately available at certain retailers. The retailers left out turned their backs to Sega, feeling abandoned, and this move just caught people really off-guard. Coupled with the fact that the Saturn just wasn't a very good system, Sega was doomed to fail against the superior Sony PlayStation.

Of course, Sega is still in the video game business, so it's not completely different now a days. But I always wonder what would have happened if the Dreamcast was a juggernaut and instead of the XBOX 360 we had Dreamcast 2 fanboys or something? That the latest Sega console was ubiquitous with gaming, just like the Wii and PS3 (and 360) are now? These hypotheticals will forever remain hypothetical.

Sigh.

The Sunday Morning Couch Potato Blues

I spend most of my time sitting down on the sofa. Actually, sorry, did I say sitting? I really meant lying. I go from lying in bed to lying on the sofa. It's the good life.

Well, it would be if I didn't have exorbitant amounts of homework to do over the next week. (Heck yes, New York Public Schools getting the whole week off. Best state, confirmed.) So whilst I sob in a corner and procrastinate on my English reading(s), Latin translating, Economic journaling, Spanish studying, and Physics note-taking, here is a slew of songs to help you cope with your own Sunday weepies. (Eww. Weepies is a stupid word. And also a band.)



Create a playlist at MixPod.com

1. "Bratty B" by Best Coast: I love this song! It's so short, and it hits its stride right at the end, but regardless it still manages to be one of my favorites on the album. They played this song in last Thursday's episode of Skins (the British one, not that unholy American abomination), and I was so excited that I had to pause it and listen to the song a couple of times before I was able to continue watching the episode. Yeah, I'm a little obsessed.
2. "Pick Me Up" by the Format: My favorite Format song is "Oceans." I've listened to that song nearly 70 times. Love it. You would think that my love for that song would inspire me to listen to the band's other songs, then, right? Well, not really. I get very attached and then don't care to explore my other options. I had a handful of other songs by the band ("She Doesn't Get It," "Inches and Falling," "Wait, Wait, Wait," and "I'm Actual," which are all awesome) but that was it. Recently I acquired a couple of their other songs, and this one is my favorite. You're welcome for the needless back story, now enjoy the song.
3. "Miami" by Foals: Love this. "Would you/be there/be there/be there for me?/In Miami?" This song is such a killer singalong. I also love the synths, or what I assume are the synths. Really hard to tell these days. This song is so smooth, like some extremely charming guy who ensnares all of the girls at the club. Like Tony! (British version, of course.)
4. "Composure" by Warpaint: Warpaint is a really cool band. It's four girls making some intense, inventive music. They make sounds that I didn't even know you could make with just a guitar or bass. This song, like "Miami," is fun to sing along with, especially that beginning. Keep my! Keep my! Keep my! My what? And then it gets really fast and I can imagine people freaking out at a party while dancing to it. Or maybe it could be the music accompanying an extremely scary chase scene. Such a good song.
5. "Hard Believer" by First Aid Kit: You know, 3 out of these 5 songs have been by ladies. I used to hate music by women. Oh, how times have changed! These sisters are really young (well, older than me, but still) and already really talented and accomplished. I dig this song a ton. I keep singing, "Love is tough! Time is rough!" Their songs are like easy listening, because they just come in and out of your consciousness, listenable without taking over everything, and I really appreciate that. Even though they're not overpowering, this song and also "Ghost Town," which I love, always get stuck in my head. They stay with you, these girls.
6. "One Time (Live Acoustic)" by Justin Bieber: Hey, Biebs, haven't seen you in awhile. I guess you've been busy promoting that little movie of yours, and being surprisingly entertaining at the Grammys. That's cool, that's cool. This acoustic version of my FAVORITE Biebs song is pretty adorable. I like that he dedicates it to Cammy Elizabeth from Virginia, although Cammy Elizabeth is a really terrible name. What is this? A Scholastics book?
7. "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" by Fleet Foxes: This is a live version, but it's still really good. I think this song is just so pleasant; I always call it "Pleasant Song" in my head, although that's not exactly intentional. I just misread the title. But "Pleasant Song" works because this song is so unobtrusive and lovely and nice, I like it a lot. I think it's my favorite song by these guys. Apparently they have a new album coming out. That's nice. Even though a lot of people think they're derivative (or maybe that others are deriving from them), I don't mind because they're great.
8. "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" by Iron & Wine: I've been listening to this a lot lately. I like the imagery and the melody is so sweet and calm. This song was in Twilight, but let's ignore that fact, okay? Although after I saw the scene where they play this song I couldn't listen to it for awhile because I kept thinking about Robert Pattinson' disgusting face, not to even mention Kristen Stewart and her stale, non-existent acting. Ugh. That connection aside this song is wonderful. "Now I'm a fat house cat..."
9. "We Could Love" by Cavil at Rest: Cavil at Rest is what Local Natives was originally called. This song reminds me of a less rhythmic "Airplanes," but I mean that in a good way. Very mellow. All of these songs are mellow! Except the first few, but still. I love the opening line: "I could say that love was/created/with you in mind." Also the chorus: "Don't/you/tell me/that life/isn't/beautiful/when we're/all/loving/each other!" This sounds a lot like the summer to me, and specifically the summer in 1960s Atlantic City, or some other place with lots of cabarets. I don't know why. I think it's the light drumming. Also, I have an overactive imagination.
10. "Rose Garden" by Shad: And we end on a slightly more upbeat note. Shad is an awesome Canadian rapper. I'm not a huge rap fan but this song and "The Old Prince Still Lives at Home" are my jams. My favorite part of this song, though, is not the rapping, but the girl singing, "I didn't come here for a rose garden!" I love how it's sung at the end, it's just so nice. Shad's songs always put me in a good mood, so I appreciate him, especially after a slew of somewhat less uplifting songs.

So that's the deal. Enjoy the music.

I HATE MY LIFE AS LIZ, Part 3

Yesterday, for the first time in YEARS, Daria was on television, IN ENGLISH, at a watchable hour (on Logo, randomly). I WAS ECSTATIC LIKE YOU HAVE NO IDEA FOR REAL.

Daria, as you obviously are aware, was an animated series on MTV of all things back in the 90s, when the M still stood for "music" and not "my God this is terrible." It was snarky, but it was genuine, it was sincere, and Jane and Daria's perpetual cynicism was not unchecked. They were likable, but I think a lot of the time this was despite their raging sarcasm. Of course it's fun to see them get away with their vitriolic, witty quips, but you understand that these girls were not supposed to be models for the viewer. They had flaws. They were real.

Scarily enough, Daria and Jane were even more real than the person that many are touting as their present-day, real-life "counterpart." Guess who that could be? YES INDEEDY, the abominable Liz "Look At Me, I'm So Nerdy With My Makeup and My Expensive Art School and My MTV Affiliation and Hipster-esque Appreciation For Anything Ironically 'Cool'" Lee. How I loathe that woman; her hair, dyed red with the blood of those who fought in the Great War for the Betterment of Teenage Culture, sends me into a murderous frenzy upon sight, for gods-sakes. Unlike Daria, Liz Lee lives in a completely manufactured world where everyone is played by an actor and almost everyone is a self-obsessed idiot. (Oh, wait, that's exactly like Daria. BUT DARIA IS A CARTOON OKAY) This fact infuriates me, mostly because Liz has kept up this ruse successfully for two years now, and is not going away like I so politely ask her to every night in my dreams. And by "polite" I mean "threateningly," but that's besides the point!

What's most infuriating about the Daria/Lee comparison is that Lee herself embraces it, as stated in this new and completely unnecessary interview by CNN (yeah, remember when they were a veritable source of information?). She is deluded enough to call Daria an inspiration, and y'know, as disgusting as it is, it makes a lot of stinking sense. Liz Lee is a cartoon character, through and through. Too bad none of her snark is even vaguely amusing.

The article disgusts me in so many ways. May we count them?

1. This quote: "'The executives at MTV are really smart. The fact that a show like that is on now is amazing and great,' said Fogelnest, who hosted his own show on MTV as a teenager (from his bedroom, no less), 'Squirt TV,' in the mid-1990s. 'My Life as Liz' is 'the one thing where someone's not pregnant or drunk; it's what real people are like.'" Okay, I understand that Jake Fogelnest and Liz Lee are "friends" or something weird like that, but this is some actually scripted nonsense. "Amazing and great"? Huh? And NO, real people are not like this. Honestly, the people on stinking Teen Mom are FAR more real than any person on My Life as Liz. Sorry. (Not.)
2. "But My Life as Liz is unique for another criticism that has been leveled against the show's star: 'My nerd cred is attacked all the time. People think that that was fabricated by MTV. That's the hardest rumor for me to deal with.'...When people (online) say, "You're not a real nerd,"' said Lee, 'I'm sitting in my room with shelves overflowing with stacks of comic books.'" LOLOLOL YEAH OKAY BECAUSE THAT MEANS YOU'RE A NERD. Shelves overflowing with comic books. PUH-LEEZE. Look, maybe Liz Lee DOES read comic books. Whatever. But that doesn't make her a "nerd." That just makes her someone who likes comic books. She is unbelievably image-obsessed, and that just adds fuel to my intense hatred. Which, if you couldn't tell, is super crazy intense, like, whoa.
3. "Benjamin Nugent, author of 'American Nerd,' noted, 'When you have people choosing to be nerds, questions of authenticity can come up. Before, you had no choice to be a nerd. Now that it's an acceptable option, you can accuse someone of being that way just to be cool. When it was uncool, you never had to worry about authenticity.'" I just find this really idiotic while also extremely obvious. What I don't understand is why one now suddenly has an option when they didn't before. You can choose to like video games and what-have-you or you can choose not to. It's that freakin' simple.
4. "'Daria made it cool to be a smart chick,' said writer Jennifer Vineyard, who worked at MTV for eight years. 'Just the presence of people or characters like Daria help make it cool to be yourself. There's a tendency for young girls to play dumb. Characters like Daria show you that you don't have to.'" I mean, I don't know, I don't think that being who you are has to be cool. You just are who you are and you don't complain. Well, you do complain, but then you grow up and you realize that it doesn't matter, these things are forever. Daria definitely is cool, but I don't know why she had to come around to prove to people that being intelligent was something worth being!
5. "Nugent also pointed out, 'Because it's now being put on MTV, teenagers are seeing it as more acceptable. I'm surprised how many kids come up to me and introduce themselves as geeks.'" I don't even know what to make of this. It's just...wow. Um.

I have to give up because I hate so much about what this article chooses to be. My Life as Liz is a terrible misrepresentation about the "nerd" subculture. It doesn't help. It hurts, and it hurts a lot. Liz masquerades as some teen nerd queen but she's just a robot programmed by Viacom to appeal to the one niche not watching MTV. God, I wish she wasn't succeeding.