"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.