100TH POST YAY!

Hello and welcome to FWSF's 100th Post Spectacular!

...Just kidding. While this is indeed our 100th post, I wouldn't call it spectacular in anyway. It is exciting though! For me! And hopefully for you!

When I had to make this blog for a class assignment back in April I didn't really expect to keep doing it almost 7 months later, but here we are, with over 7,000 page views since late May. I'd say that's pretty good for a blog with virtually no advertising, written by a 16 year old who mostly references things that no one else would understand except her for they are inside jokes she has with herself.

And while most of my comments/followers are my friends, it's nice to see that I've gotten the occasional anonymous comment from someone I presumably don't know. (2 of the 3 were pretty mean but I'll take that as a sign that they think this blog is a lot more substantial than it actually is!)

So instead of doing anything really cool, I'm just going to give you some links to some of my favorite posts on this site.

The first post: Okay, this isn't really one of my "favorite" posts, but where would we be without it? Probably at only 99 posts. And that is a major difference that I never want to think about, ever. (Also, now you heathens can stop asking me about where the title comes from because it's REALLY ANNOYING and I explained it already in this post, geez!)

The second post: I had a lot of fun writing that one. It was entertaining, it didn't feel like a chore as writing posts often does these days, and I even tried to start a running gag with it. I should start making fun of Devon Werkheiser again. I think I kind of replaced him with Justin Bieber. (Also, I think this post is solely responsible for the decent traffic I get from Denmark. Wait 'til those guys find out that I don't know a THING of Danish!)

The Glee rant: Glee and I have a really unhealthy relationship. Use this post as your primer. Also this post is the reason that my blog shows on on Ask.com under "Examples of Satire." Is it self-obsessed to quote your own writing? Good thing I never claimed to be anything otherwise!:

This show just tries to do too much in too short of a time. It tries so hard. It's like that annoying girl in your tenth grade Earth Science class who is like, "Yeah, I do this, this, and this, and I'm awesome, and I'm so good at everything I do, because I do a lot and that makes me awesome and yeah and stuff and um, crud, do we have a test today, because I totally did not study, like, at all" and then they go and they suck at everything they try to do, and you would applaud them for their effort if they weren't so annoying, and then you have to be fake friends with them because you don't want to be mean and then you go and you take to your little blog and you go and you rant like crazy and everyone has no choice but to agree with you because you are so irritated. Yeah. It's exactly like that.

The beginning of many J. Biebz related posts: I had so much fun watching th videos for and just writing this post in general. I love ranting. Justin Bieber is such an easy target, but I don't hate him. Why should I? He's never wronged me. HE ONLY LOVES. Seriously, he's never written a song about anything BUT loving people. Why y'all hatin'? WHY

On that note, the post about "Baby": I think it's important to find yourself amusing. Although not in an obnoxious way. But still, this post is a perfect example of me finding myself amusing.

MADE: I'm starting to sound like a broken record but I had a heck of a good time watching this episode of MADE (twice) and writing about it. This post is insanely mean but I don't really care. I like the title of it. YEAAAAAH!

The Persona 4 comic post: I love that Persona 4 comic, almost as much as the game itself. It really is amazing. So that's why I'm happy that this is one of my most-read posts with 255 page views. (Pretty good for this blog, as I said before!)

Essay about Pinkerton and Yoko: This essay took me like 5 hours to write. It was worth it. It was a big accomplishment for me. I did so much research and everything for it...I'M PROUD OF MYSELF ;_; despite no one reading it.

Guilty pleasure songs: I chair danced so much for this, you don't even want to know. Does chair dancing sound gross/inappropriate? It really isn't! It's just swaying in your chair! That's how I dance.

Just all of July in general: But this post in particular. Y'know, THAT'S what I should have done. Oh well. Maybe I'll ammend a handwritten note onto this later. That post has links to other July posts. It was crazy that I wrote a post every single day that month. Don't think that'll ever be happening again! Fun while it lasted, although I definitely struggled. Most if not all of my top 5 most-read posts were written during this month!

Guest posts: Thanks to everyone who wrote a guest post for me. Two are linked in that last July post, and then here's the one Blaire wrote for me. Still open to having people write guest posts for me!

Emmy Recap: Okay, it wasn't that well-written or anything but it's important to me in that it was a top Google result and it received my first really mean comment. Thank you, Lisa, for thinking my blog is important enough to criticize!

Top Chef Seth post: Dare I say CONTROVERSIAL? Nah. That's pushing it. But I got this EXTREMELY mean comment on it that I didn't even publish because it was really...pathetically mean. So then I added that dumb little note on the bottom. This post had some ill-advised comments in it but I'm a kid, of course I say stupid things! I don't regret it either way. Got me a lot of Google results and page views!


So, that should last you for the entirety of November, I'd think. Don't worry, though, I'll still be posting. Let's try and make it to 1000! Yay.

Thanks to everyone's who's read this blog, I really do appreciate it. Even if it makes little sense half of the time.

100th post, over :D

Relevant Things Going On in My Life Right Now #5

[Note: images aren't working for me at the moment. Sorry. Sad face.]

I haven't written a post in awhile-ish. Sorry. Lazy. I also haven't written one of these kinds of posts in a LONG time. But now I am. Aren't you lucky?

Today I got a Mew and now I am quite confident that I will become the greatest Pokemon master EVER. If you have HeartGold or SoulSilver then get on the Mystery Gift right now and download Mew! Do it! Now! Right now! But then please come back and read the rest of the post...

Which starts now!:

• 30 Rock Live: This is major and I probably should have written a review, but I didn't and oh well. Did you see it? Oh, excellent? Did you love it? Gasp! Me too! It was great and I enjoyed it immensely. It had a series finale kind of vibe but it was a fun experiment regardless. Although I think maybe this should have been the series finale -- not now, of course! Years from now, they should have done this episode. But whatever, I enjoyed it now. I didn't get to see the West Coast version but luckily someone has compiled a video of the differences between the two. I'm not sure which one I like better; they're both pretty amazing. Maybe the East Coast version, because I'm biased:
   
• Justin Bieber's autobiography: If you can even call it that. It's even more hilarious than I would have thought it'd be, though. Choice line: “There are lots of things I really like besides girls. Like pizza. And pranking. And CHUCK NORRIS.” Obviously this thing was ghost-written when I was in middle school. Biebs has been ready for this for years.
• The long tracking shot from Atonement: I loved the book but wasn't as big of a fan of the movie. I especially conked out during the Dunkirk scenes; unfortunately that meant that I missed on this very, very long tracking shot. I think tracking shots are the absolute coolest; this one especially! Watch it here.
• Cathy is over: Y'know, she definitely is a ton like Liz Lemon. "Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! Ack!" Love it. People always complained about how whiny and annoying Cathy was but I always kind of liked it. I recently watched the EMMY AWARD-WINNING animated special (in which Cathy is voiced by Pepper Ann!) and I actually liked it a lot. It's sad that it seems like the newspaper comics industry is sort of dying out; there isn't anything new coming in and older things are dying out. I wonder what will happen.
• Songs from commercials: I usually don't listen to songs that I heard first on commercials because it's hard to disassociate them with the commercials, but I've been listening a lot to "All Summer" from a recent Converse commercial (that actually creeps me the heck out) and "Blogspot" (BLOGSPOT OH EM GIZZLE) by Paul and the Patients from a Target commercial. They're both really good in their own right and I think that the visuals in the commercials don't distract me from the songs. (Also, if I hear songs that I already know in commercials or in Sears like I did yesterday then I actually want to listen to them more. Weird, isn't it? I heard "Fools" by the Dodos on a beer commercial and it made me want to listen to the song again. And I heard "Fables," also by the Dodos, in Sears yesterday and got super-excited. It's super-exciting!
• Friday night's episode of Freaks and Geeks: Please let me continue to live in my little bubble where this show still airs weekly, okay. There are only 2 episodes left for IFC to show and it makes me a little sad, especially since yesterday's episode was so good. You can watch it in many a part starting here.
• Sweaters: This is random and irrelevant (UH OH) but I love sweaters. That is all.

Such is life. Life goes on. Things like that. Now, back to looking at my kitty. Whoopee!

So many combinations, so many combinations!

I am so tired. I guess that's my punishment for playing Pokemon SoulSilver non-stop. Yesterday I played it until 1 AM, and today I played it from the time I woke up until about 15 minutes ago. Even though my eyes are screaming "Why did you make us stare at countless Geodudes and Gravelers for three hours straight? WHY?" I don't regret it. I did a heckuva lot of training. I beat Clair! Yay me! Now I'm on the Kimono Girls, who are evil despite them all having adorable Eeveelutions. Let's bully them like all the popular kids bullied us in middle school! YOU KIMONO GIRLS ARE SOOO WEIRD!

Anyway, so, I'm really tired. Did I say that already? Apparently I did. Today I don't really have anything to talk about, except another Pokemon-related topic: the player characters! The player characters went from being awesome to being dull, ugly, and non-threatening. They're so hard to believe as POKEMON MASTERS BOLD ITALICS!!! and they're also just really uninteresting.

Seriously. Look at the designs for Red and Leaf from FireRed and LeafGreen:

SO. AWESOME. Look at Red. Look at his face. That is the face of a trainer who has no reservations about brutally murdering a level 6 Rattatta by making his Level 50 Charizard use Flamethrower. This is the trainer who loves his Pokemon and no one else's - and that's GOOD. People, hating everyone else's Pokemon doesn't make you evil! It makes you smart. The whole point is to win, and if you're too busy chatting with Picknicker Liz about how cute her Weepinbell is (which, by the way, you would never do because 1. Liz is a brat and 2. Weepinbell is ugly as sin) then you will LOSE. So good on you, Red. And Leaf! Her outfit is just awesome. It's practical and it's fashionable. The hat is a wonderful stylistic choice because it can get really darn sunny out there in Kanto. Good on you, Leaf. Good on you.

Those designs are probably the two best, technically. They're certainly the best PAIR of characters. But to me, the single best player character is Gold (AKA "Ethan") from Gold and Silver.

"Bro, we don't mess. WE. DON'T. MESS."

 This is the new design of Ethan. But when he was Gold, in the original game, man. He was a true player. He was GLARING, guys. He wouldn't take a "No" from anyone. He did what he needed to do and he beat Lance in one go. Gold even beat RED. Obviously, Gold is the one true Pokemon Master. No one else beat Red, did they? (Other than Lyra/Ethan, who basically IS Gold, anyway. I love his design, too. I almost played SoulSilver as a boy because you can just tell that Ethan doesn't play around. But Lyra is cool, too, despite her gigantic hat. Her hair is actually SHAPED LIKE THAT HAT, too. So weird.) 

Also: Gold is just stronger mentally than Red, too. After Red became the Pokemon Master, he got all excited - "Yeah! I beat the Elite Four! I'm so excited to play the post-game now! Maybe I can go to the Orange Islands!" But no. In Red and Blue, there is no post-game. It's incredibly depressing for someone playing the game, but, well, Red has to LIVE IT. After he defeats Lance, he has no purpose in life anymore. Thus, he retreats to Mt. Silver where he fights Geodudes and Sneasels until he has killed every single one of them. He then takes to the top of the mountain where he becomes so emaciated that he and his Level 80 Pikachu, Charizard, etc. can no longer talk or even grunt. But then Gold comes along, super-excited after beating 16 gym leaders in a row AND beating the Elite Four twice (TWICE!) and he happens along this shell of a man, Red. Then they battle. Guess what? Gold wins, easily. He jumps around excitedly, saying, "HECK YEAH! I WON, SON! I'M GOLD, MOFO!" And then he leaves. And he goes and hangs out with all of those cougar fangirls he has (well, no one's perfect) and life goes on. He doesn't have a mental breakdown like Red. That's because Gold eats mental breakdowns for supper.

 

(By the way, there was also Kris, from Crystal, who is really awesome. There she is on the right. Say "Hi, Kris!" Unfortunately she was replaced with Lyra, but Lyra's grown on me.) 

Ahem. Now, after Gold and Silver, things started to get a little...well, weird. I think we're all familiar with May; she's the whiny chick in the crazy tight booty shorts. Has that little brother, Max, who we should all just forget even existed? Yeah. Her male counterpart is Brendan. Brendan has the single strangest design out of any trainer. He has this weird hat with white on top, and for years I thought that was his hair. It's NOT. How is that hair-looking thing not his hair?! Where did he get an ugly hat like that? And in Emerald, his outfit just sucks. He wears shorts over long pants. Yes, that's practical, Brendan! Now if you're hot, you can take your...shorts off? Oh, you. So strange.

 "Yeah, we be trainin'. We be trainin' in our booty shorts and poor color choicez."

Then finally we have Dawn and Lucas, another fashionably (and mentally) deficient pair. Dawn is actually okay. Her skirt is insanely short, yes, and she is definite and obvious pedo-bait. No 10 year old should be wearing a skirt that short! Don't listen to what those freaks on 4Chan say, okay? But Lucas...Lucas has no excuse. Lucas has a scarf and a beret. I can't believe any boy that wears a beret could be the Pokemon Master. Lucas is such a wuss, guys! He's a wuss. I beat him SO easily in Pearl. Whenever he showed up to battle me, I was like, "Hey, 'sup, Lucas? Que pasa?" And he would say, "Oh, why, HULLO there, Allegra! How are you, dahling?" And then we sat for tea and after we were done we would battle. Although this didn't happen often. But playing as Lucas must be lame, too. I can't take anyone seriously named Lucas. I'm sorry. I just can't.

"They see what we wearin'; they hatin'." OF COURSE WE ARE.

The new Pokemon trainers, however, are awesome. The boy especially! The girl is more Dawn-style pedo-bait, but she's older, so it's okay! Girls can be sluts as long as they're of age is what I always say! :D Just another reason to hype up Black and White like crazy.

Girl, Quit Playin'!

I wanted to post my Justin Bieber story today, but since it's still unfinished, I've decided to discuss something else Bieber-related:

I've called out "Baby" for its suckiness in the past. But I'll admit that I might have let bias seep through and shape my opinion when I said that. I stand by some things I said: the lyrics are mostly horrible, aside from my beloved Ludacris part and some other parts. And "One Time" definitely is A LOT better.

But "Baby" is, in fact, one of J. Bieb's best. Good job, Biebs!



"One Time" is a victim of major auto-tuning. Biebs' voice is masked by lots of computerized effects. SO NOT COOL. It does feature Biebs' only good piece of acting, but the rest of the video sees him acting like a poseur, basically; he throws gang signs and he says "SHAWTY I LOOOVE YOU" as if he's been cruising in the ATL since Day One. The video glamorizes the Bieber that Usher created, the one that is wholly American. While the song is flippin' sweet as they say in the Land of the Mormons, AKA Utah, the video has some problems. But it does have a lot of hilarious moments where you can really tell that my friend here is a little boy whose just having a megaton of fun (and BOOM goes the dynamite) making a video. And that's what I like. The chorus, too. I love that chorus. LEMME TELL YOU ONE TIME

But the video of "Baby." There's just something there that makes me happy.



Let's analyze "Baby" because we're awesome and have nothing better to do. "Baby" is wholly post-Bieber (I was going to say "Biebian" but we all know that a Biebian is a lesbian that looks like Justin Bieber) - this Bieber already has the girls. He doesn't need to convince them that he loves, that he loves them, because they already know, and they love him, too. And J. says that outright: "I KNOW YOU LUV MEH, I KNOW YOU CAYAH." This seems like it's almost a continuation of "One Time," as if he's singing to that girl as he's talking about how he loves her too and he'll "be theeeyah."

But then things get pretty whack, yo. So whack, in fact, that they almost ruin the song for me. I don't think Biebs' girlfriend understands that when you tell a teenage boy you love him, he thinks that you, um, LOVE HIM. He thinks that you are in a RELATIONSHIP with him. Believe me, I've tried to explain this to her. Girl just don't listen! (Wow, what happened to my grammar?) This girl's ruins Biebs' life (oh god, I almost said "urinates!") as he sings, "Are we an item? Girl, quit playin'! We're just friends, what are you sayin'?" UM. WHAT. Excuse you, Justin Bieber's girlfriend? Do you even understand what you just said?! You spent the first 28 seconds of the video flirting with the guy and telling him you love him and now you're telling him to QUIT PLAYIN' BECAUSE YOU'RE JUST FRIENDS?! WHAT ARE YOU SAYIN'?

Yes, my Paint skills are mediocre.

But even with that major oversight in logic, the video only makes me sort of want to punch everyone. After Bieber is told by the preteen girl who loves him and will never ever be loved by anyone else ever again, she dumps him. Smart girl! But then Biebs whines one of the funniest parts of  the song, "My first love broke my heart for the first time and I was like, 'Baby, baby, baby, OOOH.'" Yes, Biebs. When your heart gets broken by the girl you loved despite her telling you that you weren't even dating, the sensible thing to do is start shaking your fists at the sky and singing, "BABY, OOOH." THAT MAKES COMPLETE AND TOTAL SENSE. WOW. I LOVE YOU. Oh wait, I better not say that because unless I want you to "be like, 'Baby, baby, oooh'" all over again.

The chorus is the worst part of the song. It really is. It's repetitive. It's non-sensical. It's illogical. HOW COULD YOU THINK THAT SHE WOULD ALWAYS BE YOURS WHEN YOU WEREN'T EVEN DATING YOU CHIPMUNKY CANADIAN FOOL? Ugh. (Side note: Crud, I just noticed Drake [AKA Aubrey Graham from Degrassi for those of you in the knooooow] is in this video. Weird.)

But the video itself actually gets totally awesome after the first chorus. The "down, down, down" part of the song is so excellent I can't help but grin like an ugly Brit. J Biebs' dancing to get his girl back is awesome. HE ROLLS OVER A POOL TABLE AND IT'S SO GRAND. His intent to get his baby back is so strong and persuasive that he inspires people to start breakdancing in the bowling alley. It's pretty much official: Justin Bieber is the reincarnation of a Greek god. Maybe even Zeus. He is so powerful that he can get people to dance at his every whim. 

A staple of the best Bieber videos is the scenes where he dances in front of a wall by himself (or, in this video's case, with Ludacris). These are always the best scenes. In "Baby" Bieber just does all of his best, or weirdest, dance moves. He does a Michael Jackson-esque tiptoe as well as something Moonwalk-inspired. He does this cool Electric Slide-type thing. He shakes himself, which is hilarious. He pounds his chest a lot. Justin B. really is a pretty good dancer. He's also a really strange kid. Evidence, here: 

Sorry the .gif is so choppy. But I think you get the point. Soon enough the girl, who actually looks a lot older than Justin Bieber in a bad way, starts to see the error of her ways. You can tell that she's thinking in her head, "Wow. I'm a total jerk." She was being a jerk to him, y'know. And it's not just me being biased against her because he's my friend. She ignored him and pushed him around. MEANIE. But as Justin Bieber breaks out into a spontaneous choreographed dance in the middle of the stinking bowling lane, that girl realizes that this guy is going to make a ton of money. They'll probably make a movie about him! Maybe she could be in it. Maybe she could meet Usher! How cool would that be?

But she still isn't so sure that she should go back to him. This becomes clear to Justin Bieber's producers, so with a cry of "LUDA!" Ludacris appears in front of Justin's wall. It's all over now. This is Ludacris, people. No one can turn down Ludacris even if they tried. Not only that but Luda wants to make his young protege Bieber feel better. If Biebs is Zeus then Ludacris is Kronos, waiting to be overthrown by his son, but not before they release a music video together! His rap is my single favorite part of the song. I actually sing it constantly. "When I was firteen, I had mah first luv; there was nobody that could compare to my baby, no one could ever come between us, no one could evah come above!" In the video you mostly just see Ludacris and Bieber goofing off in-between shots of Biebs mugging for the camera and just looking generally Woodland creature-like. Bieber mocking Ludacris and then being strangled by him is pretty adorable. (Wait. What?) 

Ludacris tells Bieber he went through the heartbreak, too, but he just keeps on saying...you think he's going to give some major words of inspiration, but no: he says, "BABY BABY BABY OOOH." Luda. I don't think you get it, Luda. BIEBER HAS BEEN SAYING "BABY OOH" THIS ENTIRE TIME. YOU REALLY ARE NOT HELPING HIM. AT ALL. That whole rap, for naught! For naught, Ludacris! Bieber just goes back to his old gig of dancing awesomely and in sync with people much older than him in the hopes that this will entice his baby to come back to him. But if his not-girlfriend is anything like me, then she should've flown the coup by now. However, this IS a Bieber video, so she probably can't find a door, anyway. Lost and hopeless, she begins to dance across from Bieber like a minion of his little Dancing Army. It's girls vs. boys now. Why the girls are siding with this chick, I don't know, but that's how it is. That's how Bieber wanted it.

The girl smiles and Bieber breaks away from his bro pack to have flirting time with the girl in the middle of the bowling alley. This Bieber kid really doesn't have any problems with PDA, huh? I WOULD KNOW. BELIEVE ME. Soon enough Bieber starts saying, "And I'm all gone," which leads someone who isn't actually watching the video to believe he's committed suicide or something, because never in the song does he say anything other than "BABY NOOO" to indicate that she has come back to him. If I was listening to this on the radio, I would be shocked to hear him saying this, to hear him just abruptly allude to his disappearance...disappearance from this EARTH. Obviously in the video this is not the case. In the video it really just means, "Yo, peace, I be outtie wif mah fly honey." (Side note: she is not very fly at all. A catty girl's opinion.) But if we want to get really insane with this, which we certainly do, then we can say that maybe Bieber killed himself from loneliness and then only got together with his girl in the afterlife. Those shots in that Vegas-looking area would represent the dead Bieber. They descend the escalator and into the light together.

Dang. I'm messed up.

I hope that satiates your Bieber needs until I finish my story. It's weird, because I'm not a fan of him or anything. I mean, we're just friends and all. But he's just such a funny character to me. I think it's because he's the chipmunkiest pop star since Jesse McCartney.

Taking Interest

Okay, so my day has gone from being really lackluster to really bad. THANK YOU BLOGGER. It's your fault.

I tried to post this dumb video that I edited of the Bohemian Rhapsody sequence from Glee with the actual song edited into it. But the "server" "rejected" it. I'm not sure why. It's incredibly irritating.

So what the heck else am I supposed to talk about? I've done literally nothing all day long. Haven't left my room, for example. The most interesting thing that's happened to me today was reading some Pokemon Black/White news. So what? Should I just regurgitate that? I really would rather not.

This is why I despise the summer. There's nothing good about it. Especially THIS summer. I mean, look at the movies that have come out! Almost all of them suck! Inception's coming out on Friday but I'm still not wholly convinced that it will make this summer any less intolerable!

Please, console me and give me reasons as to why this isn't one of the worst summers of my life. And don't give me Intervention or Work of Art! Because I know you don't even care about those as much as I do. NOBODY DOES SOB DRAMATIC SILENCE.

This Post Was Hijacked By the ATAS

ATAS = Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

I was going to try to write a review of Work of Art, but I realized a few things. 1. I am so tired that I am beginning to hallucinate, 2. My brains are trying to crack my skull right open, 3. I just said "brains" when I should know that it can only be "brain," singular, geez, you don't have more than 1 brain, 4. the Emmy nominations are out, and 5. I'M REALLY COLD AND IT'S NOT EVEN COLD TODAY.

Let's focus on #4.

Here's the list of main nominations. If you care about things like directing, writing, and stunt coordination like I do, then you might want to go to the actual Emmy website, where they have a fancy drop-down menu of ALL the nominations.

Before I start ranting, let me just say that I rely a bit too much on awards shows like this to base my opinions on things. Awards help me affirm and tailor my tastes in television, which is pathetic, because it's television, and the most important thing should be whether it entertains you or not. Since I watch a lot of reruns and not a lot of new shows on TV (especially when it comes to dramas; I don't watch a single drama during its regular season, unless Glee counts), the Emmy Awards show is particularly useless to me. I like seeing the celebrities the best, but when you don't know or care about the majority of them, then it gets boring, especially when people from horrible shows like, um, Gary Unmarried or Friends (yeah, I HATE FRIENDS. Wanna make something of it?) get to go. I used to not watch the Emmys at all for this reason. I still love the Oscars better. But now that I watch some things that actually qualify for the 2010 Emmys as opposed to the 1990 Emmys, then I guess I have to watch it. And I have to rant at you about it. Moving on.

Okay, so, first things first. We failed, team. We failed to get Zach Gilford (if there wasn't already a Zachy G. in my life, I would surely have affectionately dubbed him that by now) the nomination he deserved (for Best Guest Actor in a Drama). Fortunately, "The Son" got a writing nod and to the excitement of FNL fans across the country the two lead actors got nominations. When I saw that both Kyle Chandler AND Connie Britton got nominated, I was happily surprised. And I'm not even completely sure who they are! (But then, who are we, anyway? Yeah, I just got all philosophical on y'all's eyeballs. ...I'll leave now.)

As I said before, I'm not much of a follower of drama, but I'm happy that Dexter got so many nominations. Hopefully it sweeps all of its acting categories like it did at the Globes. I love Michael C. Hall (who doesn't?) and I want him to get everything he deserves. I also want him to hang out with me some time. We can go see a movie together. It doesn't even need to be a good movie. Ahem, but I fully expect that Mad Men will do its obligatory "Yeah, we're cool and awesome and retro" rounds and win everything. I didn't care much for what I saw of it (which is way more than you'd think) but I really like Elisabeth Moss and everyone is so wildly obsessed with Christina Hendricks' boobs acting, so if either of them won Supporting Actress, I'd be happy, I guess.

Drama seems to be relying on the old (stale) standbys, but Comedy saw things being changed up. In Best Series we see Nurse Jackie, Modern Family, and Glee as newcomers in the race, and a show I always enjoy when I see it, Curb Your Enthusiasm, gets a nomination for the first time in what seems to be a long time (2 years is a long time, okay?!). I, like basically anyone with a functioning sense of humor, like Modern Family and Nurse Jack-ay is supposed to be good, but I'm going to be a hater and say that I really, really am tired of this Glee bandwagon that's been making its rounds to every state in the country and picking up people for a joy ride that they're brainwashed into enjoying and never allowed to get off of and required to spend lots and lots of money on and then, years later, when it's finally over, they get nothing but a sense of dread that, crud, maybe they've made the world a slightly less habitable place. This can be simplified: I HATE GLEEKS. If you call yourself a Gleek, I hate you. Go away. I'm sorry, but leave. Now. There are things I can like about Glee, as I've written about in the past; I like Kurt and I'm really glad that he got a nomination, even though his acting is generally nothing to write home about (He hopefully got nominated for Rose's-Stinking-Amazing-Turn and that whole "Home" episode in general), and I like his dad, whose name is annoyingly Burt. But Glee is not a god. If Glee is your deity of choice then WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? Go watch Singin' in the Rain or something before I make your face melt* with my poorly articulated ranting!

Glee leads the stinking pack with 19 noms. Nineteen. Let's talk about something else, though. Modern Family got a lot of acting nominations, which makes me happy. GO TY BURRELL GO GO GO. The Office was largely left out, but hey, I'm not complaining. Its Series nod is unwarranted, if you ask me. "Niagara" a.k.a. "Jim and Pam's WACKY Wedding" got a writing nomination, confusing the heck out of me. I will admit, though, it was probably my favorite episode of the season. 30 Rock got lots of nominations for a season that many people felt was lackluster but I found to be quite good. I wish that Cheyenne Jackson as Jack/Danny was nominated for Guest Actor, but Will Arnett was, instead, which is definitely fine. Devin is one of the best characters. (Oh, and go J. Krak for Supporting! You won't win because of Jane Lynch, but even so.) Amy Po-Po got nom'd for Parks and Rec which she definitely deserved. I was once a P&R hater but now I find myself wishing it was recognized for more. This season was great.

Big thing that people will use to affirm some kind of nonsensical and unimportant point over the next few months: Conan's Tonight Show was nominated for Variety Series while Jay Leno was nowhere to be found. Well, duh. Hollywood loves Conan, and they feel all the more sympathetic for him now that he can't afford to come to the country club anymore. Unfortunately, he'll lose to Jon Stewart, but it's okay. At least we know he'll be there. (Also: how the heck does SNL still get nominated for these things? Is there really no other variety show to fill up the space?! That show aside, every show nominated is excellent. Colbert especially was awesome this year - I loved his Olympics coverage. So. Much.)

I think it's stupid to nominate reality shows, but there are some good ones. Like Intervention! Sadly, despite having a few of the best episodes in its entire run (Amy W., Marquel) last season, it was snubbed. However, it did win last year, and that season was probably the single greatest (Joey AND Bret were in that season, I mean, c'mon), so let's give someone else a turn. (I'm an Intervention obsessive, so apologies for my confusing babble.) In Reality-Competition we see Top Chef nominated against the newly-Lifetime'd Project Runway. I want Top Chef to win. I better get what I want. Also, why the heck was Padma not nominated for Best Host when she is a truly excellent host? Watching Top Chef recently proved that to me. She rules.

No one cares about Outstanding Animated Program anymore, but I do. The only things that anyone likes that were nominated are South Park and The Simpsons, and one of those isn't even good anymore. You can pick which one. The South Park episode(s?) nominated are the controversial Mohammed ones, so I think that just knowing about them alone will guarantee that voters will choose them. South Park is probably the only one that even deserves a win, anyway. By the way, did you know Anne Hathaway was nominated for her guest appearance on The Simpsons? How weird is that! I seriously did a double-take.

I think the nominations made a lot of people happy. Some new blood was brought in, which helps to outweigh the staleness of certain other categories. However, even categories that feature the same dang people over and over have been injected with some new life (apparently people are very happy about Matthew Fox's nomination, for instance). I read a lot of Dream Nominations yesterday and the day before (okay, not a lot, but enough) and it seems like a lot of people's "dreams" came true.

Sorry for that lame joke. Emmys are on end of August. Expect more ranting to commence the day after they air.



*Please do not hold me liable for any accidents caused by your face spontaneously melting.

Not at All Fourth of July-Related

Would it be bad for me to say that I don't much care for Fourth of July?

Either way, let's celebrate in the most un-American way possible: MANGA! And a little bit of ANIME!

Specifically, Kodocha, which is one of my favorites eveeer.

It's about this mentally unstable (ahaha) child star, Sana Kurata, who is perpetually hyper and likes to be in charge. Oh yeah, she's in elementary school. (6th grade.) And the boys in her class are idiotic and also frightening, especially the leader of them, Akito Hayama. But then Sana and Akito become BFFs and Akito falls in love with her and Sana is an oblivious idiot so she doesn't figure that out until volume 6. Um. Stuff.

I can't really describe things, especially not on holidays, but it's a lot better than I'm making it sound. It's a shojo manga, and it's a little sappy, but it's also really hilarious (especially in the first three volumes; the last seven are more dramatic and sad) and interesting with really good characters.

 Crud, Akito's smiling! That never happens! D'awww.

If dramatic romance manga (which, c'mon, Kodocha is for the bulk of the time) isn't your thing, then I suggest you try the anime. The anime is much weirder than the manga and more funny than serious. It's really well-done, really funny, and incredibly insane. Yeah, there's still the romantic moments, but for the most part it's just Sana jumping around, singing, and having trouble shutting up.

It's GREAT.

Sorry this post was so sucky, but I am serious about recommending Kodocha. It's one of my most CHERISHED, BELOVED manga/anime. So check it out.

P.S. Don't go on YouTube, apparently it's being hacked right now.

Work Of Art #1.4 Review

I've been trying to write a review for this for awhile, but I just...couldn't. But today I'm going to try. This post will probably be really stupid, full of "It was stinking hilarious", and poorly written. Just giving you some warning.

Oh, and before I get into things, please follow my tumblr if you have one. If you don't have one, then just disregard this part. It was supposed to supplement this blog, somehow, but I'm not really sure how so it kind of isn't.

WORK OF ART #1.4 "A Shock to the System"

While last week's challenge was incredibly commercial and "safe," yesterday's episode was all about shocking the viewer. That being said, while this challenge was probably more interesting and was better for showcasing the artists' talents than last week's, trying to shock is overrated and pretty hard to do well, which led to this episode, much like last week's, featuring the artists flailing their arms and freaking out a lot. (Look at all of those F's!)

However, one person who kept his cool amidst the rest of the gang's misguided attempts to shock was my favorite brohan, Miles. Miles is, without exaggeration, one of the greatest reality show "characters" I've ever seen. Every week Miles speaks in the same deadpan/mildly sarcastic tone in his talking heads and says something completely awesome. This week, he talked about how the first time he got turned on, which was while watching Ursula The Little Mermaid. Yes, this was actually completely relevant to the rest of the episode. Basically, this was Miles: "maaaan dat fish was dayum fine." Um, except more deadpan, obviously. And then he asked his mom what was "happening to his body." Oh, Miles.

Miles constantly mugs for the camera in his big glasses and rolled up jeans and it's just great. Did I mention that he relies on the old standby "I have OCD" as an excuse for everything and has an affinity for sleeping at the oddest of times and in the oddest of places? It's pretty obvious that Miles is going to come out on, or near, the top because he's the strongest personality; not only that, but he also has the best portfolio. I really liked his genital-laden, male bodily fluid-stained Mickey Mouse (now THAT'S something you don't hear someone say every day); while it wasn't that shocking, well, none of the pieces were, honestly, so grading on artistic merit his really was the best. But, of course, I'm kind of biased.

Miles: "Excuse me while I jack off on my painting and then take a nap on it, kthx"

Some of the other "characters" got some fun showtime today. Whenever I see Ryan, I wonder why we don't see more of him. He seems like a cool guy, if a little full of himself (there have been SO MANY pieces that have Ryan in them so far). This time we got to see some Ryan action as we watched him make an idiot out of himself in an attempt to be shocking. It' so weird, because Ryan, like Erik who is probably one of his best buddies, has this sorta dynamic personality (I mean, relatively speaking I guess) and I don't constantly forget about him, like Mark and Peregrine, but at the same time I don't really see him going far. He is talented; his picture was good, albeit not very shocking and boringly self-centered yet again. It's just that he seems more like the male model who is there for the artists to use as opposed to being an artist himself. [/Ryan rant]

Someone who actually got a lot of screen time (as opposed to Ryan, whose "some Ryan action" really amounted to about 5 minutes of screen time) was Jaclyn. Jackie is the obligatory "Little Miss Hottie" who's there for the audience to ogle and for the judges to make awkward comments about. I enjoyed watching them look at her piece, which looked like pictures someone would take with their cell phone to send to their boyfriend Jaden or whatever who would later show those pictures that were supposed to be "so special" to all of his friends, including that sleezy dude that everyone calls Boner who would then email the pictures to every single person in school. The judges seemed to derive a bit too much pleasure from the piece. You knew this was true when they put her in the Top 2 with Abdi, another favorite to win. While Jackie didn't end up winning, she does get to stay to prance around nude for at least one more episode.

I have a love-hate relationship with Erik. On the one hand, he's "really stinking hilarious." On the other hand, he's also kind of a jerk and the art he's done so far really sucks. They always show "ERIK JOHNSON'S PREVIOUS WORK LOOK AT IT PEOPLE HERE IT IS WE'RE ONLY SHOWING IT FOR A  FEW SECONDS BECAUSE WE WANT YOU TO GO TO OUR WEBSITE OKAY IT'S GONE NOW BRAVOTV.COM THANKS" and it always looks really good, but then the crud he produces on the show is just, well, crud. I wonder if it's because he doesn't work well under pressure? I don't know. His "shocking" picture was of Ryan (of course) and Jackie's feet, symbolizing, um, priests molesting little boys. Uh. Uh? Let's stop talking about it, because it's just...erm. Since Jackie is very whiny, she started screaming at people to give her ideas, and Erik did, saying she should have people write all over her pictures. She used this idea and the judges loved it. Erik did not love it when she passed this idea off as her own. That makes sense, of course he'd be mad, but it really made him unlikable in that moment. Jackie, too, but she's always unlikable. I really just wanted Erik to go home. 

(Did I mention that the guest judge this week was famous shock artist Andreas Serrano? I know, you don't care.)

Can I just say that Peregrine cracked me up so many times in this episode? First you see her just standing around nonchalantly in her metallic bunny hood, and then, while wearing that same insane outfit, she has the gall to call Nao "really crazy" (I mean, which she is, but c'mon). Her painting was of fashion models with STDs, and one of them was basically just China Chow. It was called "Syphilis for Prada and Herpes for Chanel." That was basically my favorite non-Miles moment of the episode because during the gallery show China, when looking at the painting, was like, "There's my Chanel collar! And there's my dress! I don't have STDs this is so not cool gaiz D':" China's been completely useless as a host so far. She's no Heidi Klum or Padma Lakshmi (who is actually a really excellent host; thank you, Bravo, for putting Top Chef on right before Work of Art), but I felt like she actually had a personality in this episode, at least. That was nice to see.

The other judges range from annoying to hilariously dumb. Jerry Saltz is the prime suspect in irritating-ness; I'm sure he's the most qualified member of the panel but he really bugs me. I love New York mag but I guess I always skipped the Art section for a reason. Read his recap of the episode to get a sense of how obnoxious he is. The hilariously dumb judge is Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, who is barely qualified to even brush her own hair, let alone be in charge of the fate of the people on this show. Jeanne just never has anything of use to say. While Andreas Serrano was standing up for one of the artists that she was dissing, she just gave him this look like, "Uh, are you kidding me right now? How can you NOT agree with me?!" It was incredibly obnoxious and idiotic.

The Tim Gunn character is Simon de Pury, who seems like one of the nicest, friendliest people who has ever existed. While in earlier episodes he seemed more like an observer than a mentor, this time he dispensed important advice and also regaled the artists with his lovely sense of humor. (One of my favorite parts of the show so far has to be, from last week's episode, when Simon tells a joke about a Dr. Zhivago-reading dog. Simon, be my grandfather or something, please!) I think Simon should be a judge, because he seems more cultured, intelligent, and interesting than any of the people who are actually getting paid to give their weak criticisms.

In a horrible segue, not only were the artists trying to be shocking, but the producers were, too, apparently. To be subversive or something, they went with an American Idol-style approach and said that they were going to eliminate TWO people this week. Yeah, I just put "American Idol" in the same sentence as "subversive." That should tell you what I thought of this choice.

The bottom four were Erik, Nao (the "internationally renowned performance artist," she was shaping up to be "The Villain" in the beginning but just faded away), Jamie Lynn (the "Nice Christian Girl"), and John, who was one of my absolute favorites. He won last week's Book Cover challenge and was just generally sweet and huggable. Oh, and, yeah, he was a good artist, too. This week he made a picture of a dude performing "auto-fellatio." I don't want to explain what that means to you, but I also don't want you to see the picture. Hopefully you know enough to know what that means on your own, because it's really disgusting. Unfortunately, the judges found John's picture safe and uninteresting. They told John that they would have preferred a photo of him actually doing the act, which is completely disgusting and weird to say to someone with a straight face. John looked insanely uncomfortable, and I don't blame him.

Nao was put down for doing thoughtless performance art, which was true, but I found it pretty unsettling. So did Andreas Serrano, who, while not shocked, claimed to be disturbed. This view was undermined by the other judges. Idiots. Jamie Lynn drew a parody of the Last Supper that was not shocking at all. The premise was that "We're making Jesus look bad! I'm going to draw a picture that shows you guys that you're making Jesus look bad with all your debauchery! JESUS CHRIST IS SO WONDERFUL!" Oh-kay, Crazy Lynn. The judges called it "Apostles Gone Wild," and aptly-so, but this "Gone Wild" stuff has become so ingrained in our culture that it's pretty much commonplace. As said in this fine review of the episode, "Presented to a panel that includes a man who dumps crucifixes into vats of urine, this 'outrage' directed at religion was benign if not wholly pleasant." It truly was awful.

In the end, the judges kicked off John and Nao, which was completely idiotic. While Jerry Saltz seems to indicate otherwise in his review, I think that the producers wanted to go for shocking in as many aspects as possible. John said that he was "went from winning a challenge one week to being sent home the next [which] is extremely baffling," and I agree. It was stupid. And Nao's might have been meaningless, but I'd be pretty shocked if I saw someone covered in feces that they rubbing on their crotch, and I doubt that'd have a point, either. Erik has been either awful or mediocre for the last four challenges, and Jamie Lynn's was outstandingly bad. Sending home Nao and my beloved JOHN was stupid beyond belief.

It may seem like I have a lot of criticisms, but I'm a hater. That's what we do. I actually really liked this episode, but I don't think I liked it as much as last week's. Next week there's supposed to be some Miles x Nicole (who I haven't mentioned even once, have I?) stuff, which means that there will be lots and lots of Miles, which makes me an excited little girl.

I'll give this episode 3 and a half Little-Mermaid-lovin' Miles out of 5.

Check out the "works of art" here.

SCHOOOOOL'S OUT FOREVAH

Not really, unfortunately. But as of today I'm FREE for the summer! YAY. Call me up, Bieber. I know you're not busy.

Since I have nothing to do all summer and have no friends whatsoever (SOMEONE PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT AND PROVE THIS IS FALSE D:), I'm going to be doing lots of blogging, about things like:

• Work of Art, that new art-related reality show on Bravo that is my latest guilty pleasure
• Pokemon, because it rules (and just tons of video games in general)
• Lady Gaga, because she is the complete opposite of Pokemon in that she does not rule, and for a second there I wrote "Pookemon," whoops
• Intervention and Obsessed, two of my favorite shows EVER that are going to be showing new episodes ALL. SUMMER. LONG. THERE IS A GOD AND HIS NAME IS KEN SEELEY
• Hopefully NOT college. No, we will speak about that as little as possible.
• how much I love making lists (expect a lot of them!)
• reviews of movies that I plan on seeing, like INCEPTION! and SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD! and maybe The Last Airbender...if someone PAYS ME. Hee hee, haw haw
• and other random popular culture-y things that may or may not be scarily random or pretentious

Most importantly, though, I will be posting .gifs of people dancing. LIKE THIS ONE:


GIFSoup

I never tire of that. EVER. That's the summer for you/me/US. Now give me a hug! ...Just kidding.

Have you read that Persona 4 comic yet? READ IT READ IT READ IT

Seriously though. Stick around, or I will weakly attempt to cause you physical damage, by such PAINFUL methods as poking and staring menacingly. Oh, yes. SO KEEP READING. 

On a Completely Unexpected Note

From reading this blog or just knowing me as a person, it's quite apparent that I'm pretty pretentious when it comes to music (and movies, and TV, and most things, sadly). When people talk about some song by Rihanna that I've never heard, for instance, I'll proudly yelp, "Oh! I have never heard that song, for I do not listen to the radio, NPR and other stations my father puts on in the car aside notwithstanding! My grandest apologies!"

However, despite my lack of radio-listening and "indie" predilections, I'm not completely immune to the power of just plain good pop music and its catchiness. I mean, I pretty much spend all day watching TV, kids. I'm bound to hear "Eenie Meenie" sometime. How do you think I know about Justin Bieber, anyway? How do you think we became such swell chums?

Youtube is so helpful in this regard, in my journey to act my age and stay in touch with the mainstream. Here are some popular songs I like that you actually have heard of, both new AND "old!":

Kelly Clarkson - "Since U Been Gone"

I don't go to parties often, but if you ever have had the luck (BAHAHA) to be at a party with me, then you know that I actually LOOOOVE Kelly Clarkson. Especially this song! I can be found singing it at the most random of times in the most angelic of singing voices. Just ask any of my friends! All 3 of them! (Just kidding, hee hee. Hello, friends who have probably been forced to read this!) This song is actually amazingly good. The title may be grammatically incorrect but if that's the only negative this pessimist has, then you're doing something right, Kell! Other Kelly Clarkson sing-along favorites include: "Breakaway", "Walk Away", "Behind These Hazel Eyes", "My Life Would Suck Without You"

B.o.B. - "Nothin' On You"

I actually stealth-linked to this video before, but I don't care. I'm posting it AGAIN. Because it's AWESOME. Most people I know are like, "Eww, rap is gross, I'm gonna go listen to my [insert serious crud here] instead!" But rap isn't all bad. Obviously! Bruno Mars has such a niiice voice. Soooo niiiice. Plus, any song that has an N64 reference in it is cool in my very large and VERY COOL book. And this video seriously is really cool. Other B.o.B. songs I can be seen chair-dancing to: "Airplanes", "The Kids", "Magic"

Lady Gaga - "Paparazzi"

I actually despise this music video, save for the scene towards the end where she's decked out in that seriously weird Minnie Mouse getup. The song, though. OH, THE SONG. This song was made for me to rock out to with my truly inspiring vocals! And I do, very often in fact. My personal stance on Miz Gaga is that she wouldn't be at all interesting if it wasn't for her outfits, and I think that still stands; this song isn't particularly interesting or novel, and a lot of people cite its music video as a positive for it when they really should just focus on the song itself. Lucky for Gawgs, this song is so stinking catchy I wish I didn't start watching the video now because it's going to be stuck in my head AGAIN, and last time it was stuck in my head I swear it didn't leave until I cleansed myself with some Justin Bieber (I think "Eenie Meenie" in particular, which is actually quite bad). Other Lady Gaga Jamz: "Just Dance" (DO DAW DO)

Colby O'Donis - "What You Got"

Okay, I'm not sure how popular this song was, but if it wasn't that popular, then, well, IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN. Seriously, I dig this song something awful (that sounds horrendous). Colby, you may be of ambiguous ethnicity, but my feelings for your song are quite obvious - LOVE IT. Especially that chorus; I mean, COME ON GENTLELADIES AND MEN. It's so simple and perfect and smooth like the ice cream I really want to eat right now but don't have. Ice cream! ICE CREAM! Sadly, there are no other Colby songs I even know so I can't recommend them, but see the aforementioned "Just Dance," since he features in that.

Jason Derulo - "In My Head"

Dang, this song is catchy. It just gets catchier and catchier as it goes along. The vid's a bit annoying, the silhouettes aside, but that chorus is too good. I don't know how much Jason (Jason or Jay-shawn?) Derulo really brings to the table, especially lyrically, considering most of the song consists of "yeah-ah," "ehh," and "what's goin' down," but if this was his one hit, I could live with that. And I hope that everyone else would be able to, as well! (Although apparently his first song was a hit, too. But DO I CARE?) Derulo reminds me of someone else who I'm about to get to, albeit a less cool and original iteration...

Ne-Yo - "Closer"

CRUD. Try to point out a flaw in this video. Just. Try. It. "Um, well--" SHUSH. SILENCE. We'll be having none of that. Not that your point would have been valid, anyway. Ne-Yo's got the moves, man, and the style! This video is way too cool for someone like me who's been wearing the same smelly pajama pants and Oprah-related t-shirt for the last two days. I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy! But I'll watch from afar regardless because Ne-Yo, you're the man. Although I find it weird that two of your songs share their names with Kelly Clarkson ones ("Because of You" and "Miss Independent") but we'll let that slide because your dancing is so choice. (Speaking of dancers, Chris Brown is truly amazing. Wife beating aside, of course. I never get tired of this performance.  I couldn't care less about his music, though.) Something similar: Justin Timberlake! I love Justin Timberlake. I really do. I'd recommend "Rock Your Body," "Cry Me a River," "Senorita," "My Love"

Vanessa Carlton - "A Thousand Miles"

I think everyone is tired of this song by now; it's been played to death, I'm sure. But it's probably one of my favorite songs ever. I definitely loved it when I was a young'un, and honestly, I still do now. And PROUDLY. Her piano-playing is killer, man. I remember seeing her do this song on U-Pick Live back in 2002 or 2003. Or maybe it was one of her other songs... Either way, it made my day. I think. Geez, that was so long ago. I wish that Vanessa C. had been more popular, or at least sustained her popularity, but it's kind of faded out. I'd prefer to see more people like her than more people like the next artist on my list... Other Vanessa faves: "Ordinary Day," "White Houses" (seriously, I don't know anyone who doesn't LOVE that song especially. And her outfit in the video is awesome, although the rest of the video is lame)

Miley Cyrus - "Start All Over"

Okay, so this is the only song on this list that I'm pretty embarrassed to admit that I enjoy. I mean, I don't have it on my iPod or anything; what do you think I am, some kind of animal, like a 12-year-old girl? But this song is just SO CATCHY. The catchiness totally overpowers how bad Miley Cyrus' voice is. And that part when you just see the guitarist strumming the obviously-not-functional guitar while walking down the street? I LOVE IT. The dancing is fun to watch, too. It's my guy Marc Webb directing, so that helps. The video also seems like it was done all in one take, for the most part, and that's way cool. Miley actually seems like someone who could -- should, even -- be really famous and successful in this video. I mean, she is, obviously, but this video works kind of as a testament to that for me. Stuff Miley Cyrus sings that I'm similarly embarrassed to enjoy: "See You Again," "East Northumberland High" (Betcha you don't know THAT one!). Something similar: Aly and AJ's "Potential Breakup Song." It's actually really stinking hilarious, and it has Rivers Cuomo's vote of confidence!

There are other bands and songs that I like that are insanely popular; I just didn't list them because they're pretty much crossover hits (Gorillaz, the Killers, Jimmy Eat World, OK Go, Coldplay, La Roux, etc.). Just so you know.

Anyway, yeah. Enjoy these videos while I enjoy the Toy Story 3 Food Network Challenge and continue to not write my college essay and do my Chem homework! :D

New Scott Pilgrim Trailer!

If I haven't made it clear enough yet, I love video games. I love everything about them. I love playing them, watching them, reading about them, talking about them, even singing about them. YES, I SING ABOUT VIDEO GAMES. Poorly!

That's why I like Scott Pilgrim so much. It's this graphic novel series that's about cool people who like video games and anime and manga, and live very video game/anime/manga-esque lives. And they make it seem totally normal.

I would give you the whole synopsis but I'm lazy. Let's let other people do that for me!

Obviously, there is a movie coming out. This is the brand-new trailer for it, released yesterday. It will probably become a huge thing, and I guess that's good if it gets more people reading the comic books. I just hope that people don't just watch the movie and come up to me when I'm talking too loudly about it and they're like, "Scott Pilgrim! I love that movie!" because then I'll give them the stink eye, and no one wants to see that.

Ahem. Anyway, some of my favorite people are in this movie: Michael Cera, Johnny Simmons (HOTEL FOR DOGS SAY HAAAAY just kidding, god, don't ever admit it if you've seen that movie), Aubrey Plaza, etc. So of course, I'm excited, although I would be anyway.

And Edgar Wright is directing! You probably know his stuff (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz); my favorite thing of his is Spaced, which is this hilarious British comedy series that's similar to Scott Pilgrim in that it has lots of video game and other "geeky" references in it. It's good stuff. You should rent it. If you want, I can consider lending it to you...in ten years. OH SNAP.

So, yes. Enjoy that trailer and go out and buy the Scott Pilgrim comics. I'll probably be talking more and more about it as we get closer to the release date of the sixth/last volume and the movie. And then MAYBE I'LL WRITE SOME REVIEWS. Because Google tells me that everyone loves those! And by everyone, I mean the five people who read my blog.

Buy Scott Pilgrim volumes 1-5 here.

(Whoa, lots of caps! And sorry that the videos always get cut off! Stupid Youtube is stupid?)

We'll just stay in our homes, in our homes, in our homes!

The Take-Away Show is one of the greatest concepts to ever come out of the Internet, I think.

The Take-Away Show (or "le Concert a Emporter") was created by La Blogotheque, a popular French music blog. Here is how they define it:

Every week, we invite an artist or a band to play in the streets, in a bar, a park, or even in a flat or in an elevator, and we film the whole session. Of course, what makes the beauty of it is all the little incidents, hesitations, and crazy stuff happening unexpectingly. Besides, we do not edit the videos so they look perfectly flawless, instead we keep the raw sound of the surroundings. Our goal is to try and capture instants, film the music just like it happens, without preparation, without tricks. Spontaneity is the keyword.

Does that not sound amazing? Because it is.

Call me a hipster (although I will deck you something awful if you do), but one of my favorite bands is The Dodos. They're not really that hipster-y, though, at least, I don't think they are. Anyway, they make "freak folk," which is basically just really high-energy folk music. It involves yelling, but the yelling is cool. The drumming is also insaaaaane, as is the guitar playing.

I thought I had seen the majority of the worthwhile Dodos videos until I checked again last night and found that Current.tv, one of my most favorite TV channels that I don't have, had partnered with La Blogotheque last August (!!!) to create an AMAZING 20 minute Take-Away Show with the Dodos in San Francisco!

Set list:

1. Beards

2. Joe's Waltz (Download)

3. Fools

4. Horny Hippies

Nice mix of Visiter stuff and Beware of the Maniacs stuff, yay. "Horny Hippies" and "Joe's Waltz" are the stand-out performances, so if you don't want to watch the whole thing (and shame on you if you don't) then at least watch those two. Although Joe's Waltz is seven minutes long. But still!

Here are some other cool Take-Away Shows:

Guillemots - "Made-Up Lovesong #43" (Download)

The dressing like a hobo theme continues from the Dodos video into this one! Tee-hee. That was a joke. I really like the location. It's so perfect for this video. And I like how the camera guy runs away at the end. Or do I? It's actually pretty weird. But, like, "ha-ha" weird. Not like "I think that man is a mass murderer in the making" weird. Anyway.

Ra Ra Riot - "Dying is Fine"

Ra Ra Riot is a band that you'd think would suck live, mainly because lead singer Wes' voice is kind of...it has its quirky charms, let's put it that way. But this actually sounds really excellent, a lot like the album version. And you gotta love the violins.

Bloc Party - "This Modern Love" (Download)

Once again, Kele from La Fiesta de Bloc is someone who you would think wouldn't sound so great live, but he does, and it's acoustic, too! I luuuurve this song. Especially the "Jump left/right" parts. And he makes those parts sound so meaningful! Not that they weren't originally, but you know what I mean. He does a heartfelt rendition.

Arcade Fire

Set list:

1. Neon Bible

2. Wake Up

Yeah, this one's pretty long, but it's probably the single most popular Take-Away Show, after the Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver ones. The Dodos one is still better, though! But, ahem, I like what was written about this on the site:

We knew that the Take Away Show with Arcade Fire wouldn’t be like the others. The project was made for them because they’re of a different kind, a different essence. We had spent the afternoon with them when suddenly we realized, in a flash: “yes, this group is different.”
We had been playing the role of “outsider” the entire day, like a foreign body that latches onto the daily grind of these magnificent musicians. We had to adapt, through astonishment and wonder, as the band took up their instruments and started to play. But Arcade Fire didn’t take us as outsiders. It all seemed to unfold naturally: we entered into their logic as they awaited us and eventually swallowed us up. It was now Win Butler’s Take Away Show, and we followed.

Win Butler is, of course, Arcade Fire's leading man. I really like the part where they walk into the stadium into the GIGANTIC crowd, and then they just swing "Wake Up" like it's nothing into a megaphone. Wouldn't it be just so cool to be in that crowd, to witness that? ("REACHES AND TOUCHES MY HAND!" yaaay that part)

I would love to see any Take-Away Show. For people not in the know, it could just seem like particularly bold street performers doing their thing, but to see a band you really like just walking around and singing without a care in the world, I just think that's the coolest.

So let's dance!

GIFSoup

Thirteen (Or, I Review Parks and Recreation, The Office, and 30 Rock)

So I didn't post reviews on Friday like I said I would consider doing. Sorry.

I was going to review the season finales of Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office, and 30 Rock (AKA NBC's entire Thursday night line-up) but then I barely paid attention to Community and I just got lazy.

I'll just sum up my opinions on the other three for you, anyway, while I rock out to B.o.B (Nothin' on YOOOOOU, baybeh).

Parks and Recreation: #2.24 "Freddy Spaghetti"

I wouldn't really consider myself a Parks and Rec fan, nor did I watch every episode this season, but every episode that I did see I enjoyed. Season 2 was a major step up from that crudtastic season 1 that I hated so so so so so so so much.

This episode was especially good. I did a lot of "awwing" Thursday night because of this and 30 Rock, which I'll get to. (And from what I heard, I probably would have been grinning madly at Community too). There were lots of sweeeeet moments between Wamy ("Amy" to you people out of the loop that really only includes me but okay) Poehler, aka Leslie Knope, and Ben, who was played by the guy from that show I've never seen on Starz, Party Down. Ben was Rob Lowe's (oh yeah, he was guest-starring, too) partner, and they came to Pawnee to authorize budget cuts or something. Ben started off as the main antagonist, but eventually became pretty close to Leslie, empathizing with her ambitious political dreams. The episode is kind of based around Leslie trying to set up a fundraiser to build a new park, and the main attraction was supposed to be the titular Freddy Spaghetti, a name that I always feel idiotic for typing; however, when Freddy nearly bails out for some other gig, it's Ben who gets him to come back to play Leslie's fundraiser. Yes, it was as adorable as it sounds. (As was the last scene with Leslie and that guy, um, Mark, who left the Parks and Rec department. In the end, nearly everyone lost their job to buget cuts, I think. It was sad.)

The B-plot of the episode was centered around the love triangle between Andy, Ann, and April, who is probably too young tot be dating Andy, but that doesn't stop her from trying. We see a new side of April - she's not completely apathetic! But she is an insanely jealous person. This was a continuation from the previous week's episode, when April is suspicious of Ann and Andy and then turns Andy down or something. In this episode, Andy and April almost get together until Ann ruins it. She's lonely, you see. That's all I'm going to say.

This episode was a lot more emotional than most episodes of the show and had lots of character development. It really felt like a finale, though; I got shades of "Casino Night," The Office's awesome season 2 finale. But it was still funny, mostly because of Ron (others would include Tom, but I despise Aziz Ansari), so it was a balanced and satisfying conclusion to a very good season. Too bad we're going to have to wait until January for more Parks and Rec.

I'll give it 4 Pregnant Wamy Poehlers out of 5.

The Office: #6.26 "Whistleblower"

I'll be blunt: This episode sucked.

There were some funny moments, mainly because there was a good amount of Andy, and Andy is probably my new favorite character. There was a sweet moment or two, particularly the one at the end with Michael and Kathy Bates playing some chick from Sabre or whatever it's called. But all-in-all, it did not feel conclusive, very little happened, and it was BORING. It felt like a mid-season episode that shows in one of those slow March weeks.

Here's the plot: Sabre printers catch fire. Press finds out from an employee who leaked the info to them. Who is this employee question mark exclamation point.

A writer is supposed to take this boring-sounding plot synopsis and make it funny, engaging. These new Office writers, picked off the streets outside their Ivy League colleges, do not understand how to do that. The actors try their darnedest (Ed Helms, Mindy Kaling, Steve Carell, and even Jenna Fischer especially), but it just fails so much because of the writing. Jim and Pam used to be the two most popular characters, and amongst the most well-written, but, sorry to be a hater, they're absolutely dreadful now. Jim just lazily makes faces to the camera and says something sarcastic every now and then. Pam whines and talks way too much. Thus, the writers have been steadily shifting to the relationship between Andy and Erin, which is still interesting, but very little time is devoted to them.

Most of the time was spent with Michael and Kathy Bates. Michael proudly defends his new parent company against the "allegations" that their stupid printers catch fire, although he does it more because he's excited to be on TV than because he cares about Sabre. Because who really cares about Sabre, anyway? I don't. They brought that creepy tall guy into the office. What's his name, anyway? Wikipedia says Gabe...he is so creepy. Speaking of people we don't care about or like, the best part of the episode was also the most awkward: the IT guy who I had never seen before, Nick, announced that he was leaving. No one cared. There was a funny callback to the old IT guy, the Arabic one that Michael thought was a terrorist. (Where'd he go, anyway?) And then there was a hilariously awkward scene where Nick yells at everyone for treating him like dirt and then leaves to teach in Detroit. Poor guy, hope he doesn't get shot.

So basically all that happened was that we find out that Andy was the "whistleblower," everyone hates him more than usual except for Erin, and then Kathy Bates tells Michael that she'll try to get Holly back. For a finale to have only two minor conclusions like that is really anticlimactic. I wasn't a Holly fan, at all, although I appreciate them at least furthering Michael as a character in terms of his relationships and such. But what is Kathy Bates even going to do about it? What can she do? I don't know. I miss David Wallace.

2 Creepy Sabre Employees Who Always Look Scared out of 5.

30 Rock: #4.22 "I Do Do"

A lot of people thought that this season of 30 Rock was the worst, but I'm a relatively new fan, and I liked this one as much as the last season (although I watched Season 2 over winter break and nothing beats that). This episode, which was a continuation, like Parks and Rec, of the previous week's, was especially good.

Following "Emmanuelle Goes to Dinosaur Land," which is an amazing title, Liz tries to find a way out of "settling" with her hilarious British soul mate Wesley Snipes. Yes, like the actor. Wesley is the one who brought us such great phrases like "Gangway for the foot cycle" and "My velocipede!" and we love him for it. Well, "we" meaning everyone but Liz, who can't stand Wesley at all. I think everyone who watches the show wants Liz to be happy, but I would've been fine with her marrying Wesley if that meant that we got to see him again. Alas, that was, of course, not to be.

As Liz begrudgingly attempts to get used to the idea of having Wesley around, Jack tries to work out his own relationship problems - should he choose Nancy or Avery? At the beginning of the episode he's convinced that he wants Nancy. It's understandable, considering Nancy is sort of like the way more Bostonian female Jack, but at the same time, you can tell that this really is a hard decision for Jack. Personally, I HATED Nancy. I couldn't stand her horrible accent. There were lines she said that I normally would have thought were funny had she not been the one saying. I don't really care much for Avery, either, but one of the things Jack wanted the most was an heir, and he wasn't going to be getting that from Nancy. Avery reminded me of Edie Falco's character from season 2, and I actually kind of liked her, and I thought that type of character was good for Jack. And guess who he really chooses in the end? A pregnant Avery. I read somewhere that this might mean next season will be all about Jack complaining about not being able to be a good father because he didn't have one growing up, and I really hope that's not the case.

Matt Damon guest-starred as the pilot that Liz meets at Wesley's office, Carol. Within two minutes of talking to him, Liz discovers that HE is her true soulmate. Carol likes everything that Liz likes and even likes TGS, so he's kind of like Liz's scary fanboy, except awesome. Also, he is a horrible dancer, and I find that endearing. Carol is so perfect for Liz that I could not stop awwing at them. I like the characters on 30 Rock so much that seeing them happy makes ME happy. It's infectious. Unfortunately, when Liz tells Wesley that she and Carol are soul mates and Carol overhears, she nearly ruins it. I felt like Carol's reaction was realistic, but at the same time, he was just kind of like, "Wow, creepy. Bye," and then he specifically said bye to Jack in a way that was supposed to bring us back into Jack's story, but it kind of bothered me. That's a nitpick, but still. However, Carol comes back. Why? What normal person would do that? He says that he thought about it and that he's getting old, too, and...basically, he tells Liz that he's settling for her. It's kind of like Wesley and Liz all over again, with the roles reversed, except that there's a mutual interest there. I think I'm the only person seeing it like this, but Carol specifically says "I'm 39 years old" as if he's saying he has no other options.

Whatever, I love him anyways. I even made this really bad .gif of him dancing!:

I haven't even talked about Kenneth yet! Kenneth had one of the best parts of the episode when he drunkenly gives a speech at Grizz's wedding about how he loves everyone after losing his job. Basically, Jack got Kenneth a promotion -- to LA. Kenneth gets mad. Kenneth acts totally and hilariously un-Kenneth-like to lose the promotion, only to end losing the job. Then he shows up the wedding and gives a heartwarming speech. Yay, Kenneth. The best part of that was that he sounded completely angry the whole time...oh, Kenneth! I love you.

This episode was the most truly conclusive out of the three I saw; it ended Liz and Jack's season-long arcs in a nice way. I'm just worried that Liz and Carol aren't actually going to end up together. That's the nature of the guest star, although Carol's a pilot, so, hey, maybe it can work?

5 Dancing Matt Damons out of 5 :)

Those were like extra-long, out of order summaries with "I love you"s and "Hilarious"es thrown in, but OH WELL. NOW YOU KNOW. I'd recommend you go watch "Freddy Spaghetti" and "I Do Do" on Hulu, as well as Community's finale, "Pascal's Triangle Revisited," which I heard was pretty good. I only saw some of it, and it involved the usage of the term "Tranny Queen," if that will compel you any.

In parting, here's a clip of Kenneth's speech, with bonus Carol and Liz time! And Will Forte as Jenna's creepy boyfriend...or whatever he is...