Considerably Cooler than I Am

I don't have an ounce of hipster in me (seriously, not even an ounce) except that I love Beck and all things like this. It has all my favorite parts of Odelay mixed with all of my favorite parts of Midnite Vultures, only its cooler.

I actually saw Beck on the Midnite Vultures tour in 2000. What a ridiculous show. It really was like watching performance art with good music. I would highly recommend. In fact, that was my second favorite concert ever (first was U2 All that You Can't Leave Behind which was just too iconically amazing to beat Beck. And third was Dave Matthews opening for Phish in Lexington VA my freshman year of college, two years before DMB was famous outside of VA. They encored together with "Over the Rainbow" - soooo 1994. I think I was actually wearing a flannel shirt tied around my waist.)

Anyway, Beck. Recommended. He's brilliant.

Call Me a Loyalist...

But I had no idea that VH1 was ever in trouble. At least not enough to enjoy a 20% increase in ratings over the past year. That's big.

I really am an early adopter of the VH1 (that's me pretending I'm writing marketing recommendations in a power point presentation - which is apparently ALL I DO these days). In high school, every night that vaguely sucked ended with my friends and I sitting in my parents basement, watching standup on VH1 (I guess those were the pre-Comedy Central days) and with my friend Pete falling asleep and waking up cranky around midnight.

During college I didn't have cable, so I guess my VH1-watching must have tapered off. But as soon as I graduated I was back on the horse - and that's when the Golden Age began. All those BTMs...brilliant. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the Motley Crue episode. Rationally, I know that Tommy Lee is a wife beater...but I just can't help myself...he's such a rock star.

And a drummer, too. Drummers and midfielders...

Navel Gazing

Apparently I need to be posting a) more and b) more interestingly...

Actually, I have felt like writing a lot more lately. Unfortunately, that's coincided with my having a lot of work to do (which is, of course, a good thing). But rest assured, this week I should be a little slower and I plan to do some real writing as well as some blogging.

I Totally Agree

With this. I, too, watched a healthy amount of MTV's Spring Break over the weekend. I, too, was excited when I saw the commercials that said, "Come on, you know you watch it - everyone does." I, too, was disappointed.

I don't so much miss the topless girls, but there's definitely a lack of mindless stupidity in the programming these days. When you involve Paris Hilton, maybe you can't add anymore mindless stupidity, but I prefer mine amateur. What I remember about my own, real life Cancun Spring Break definitely involved really mindless actions.

I watched for about three hours on Sat night, with a few friends. After an hour of Paris in a green dress and seeing 50 Cent perform twice (they also didn't do a good job of mixing up the episodes - NOT good for anyone who's too lazy to change the channel), Sarah said, "When are they going to put people in a big burrito again?"

I agreed, as I started to really, really miss Say What Karaoke (the early seasons, not later when everyone was too polished).

I guess there's always next year...

Spamalot

I can't remember the last time I really, truly wanted to go see a play. Possibly that has never happened. But I really want to go see this (with the original cast).

And actually, I think the stilted New Yorker writing of this review makes the play seem even funnier.

Catching Up on My Watching

Last night I took a break from L&O (I've seen them all anyway) to watch the Real World: Philadelphia reunion special and last week's episode of PoweR Girls. SUCH quality television. BTW, love the MTV spring break ads where they mock everyone's embarrassment about watching.

PoweR Girls - everything I could have imagined and more. These girls are so dumb they deserve to be on this show. They also make me hope that reincarnation does exist so they'll get theirs in the next life. Who is this shallow? Who ACTUALLY wanted to be on Sex and the City? Oh, right, thousands and thousands of girls in NYC.

RW: Philly - First, I love reunion shows. They make it so easy not to watch the season. Especially when the season involves the most boring (and not even that cute) cast ever and outrageously tired storylines. Sarah's slutty? Got an eating disorder? Karamo's gay? Mel's annoying? YAAAAAWWWWWN.

Plus, Philly? Who wants to live in Philly? Its not crappy like Newark or anything, but it definitely lacks buzz. In fact, maybe the next one should be in Newark. At least it'd be different.

We saw some footage last night, though, proving that the season could have been a little more interesting, if only it'd been edited that way. They had enough extra hookup footage for Philly to be Vegas (OK, not exactly, but maybe for Chicago). Why not go with that? Sex sells, people.

And this is the first cast I've seen that really didn't seem to like each other very much at the reunion special. They don't have that "we were on RW" bond - MJ even said they don't. Bad casting? Its so conscious now, anyway. Last night, Willie even referred to himself as a "gay character." Maybe the casts are just too aware these days.

Finally, Karamo = a million times gayer than he was on the show. Guess now that he's officially out he doesn't have to butch it up as much. Good job breaking down stereotypes there, MTV.

I am so glad this season's over, though. And I'm not even going to start watching the Inferno 2. I've seen the same characters WAY too many times. Though the preview with Tonya dumping somebody's (Rachel from San Diego?) clothes in the water is pretty awesome.

Bring on Austin, I guess...

Bad College Ideas

My sister's friend Nina is in art school and regularly makes very art-school-like decisions. Her mom cuts my hair and everytime I see her, she tells me about something new Nina's done that seems ridiculous. Mostly her decisions involve piercings, which are easy to reverse.

Not this one though. I hope she never decides she wants to get this puppy removed.

How glad am I that I never went through an artsy phase? And that I never succumbed to the urge to ink Pi Phi letters somewhere on my body?

My First Memory Ever

Last Thursday I remembered something that I think might be my very earliest memory. That, in itself, seemed very cool to me, but I was (am) mildly disturbed by the content of the memory.

Until I was 1 1/2, my parents and I lived in a townhouse in Crofton, MD, down the street from a couple named Ted and Lil vanKirk. The vanKirks were the same age as my grandparents but they became friends with my parents. When I was that little, my mom mistakenly thought she could shield me from a life of junk food, so she didn't feed me anything sweet. Fortunately, Lil crushed that dream of hers early on, giving me cookies whenever I came over. So I called her Cookie Lil.

But I digress - that's not the memory. The memory took place sometime after we moved from Crofton to Severna Park (to the house where they still live) and just after I was potty trained. I had probably just turned 2 (my mother's told me that I was very grown up and decided one day to just be potty trained.) We were visiting the vanKirks and it must have been spring or summer because I was wearing a very short dress. And my parents, after a few minutes of pressure, convinced me to lift my dress up and show Ted and Lil my ruffly underpants.

I'm sure I didn't have to lift very far - my mother didn't dress me in anything that really covered my butt anyway. But what kind of earliest memory is that?

I guess they're just lucky I'm not a stripper. I need to work on remembering something less little-kid-slutty now, though. Like reading my first book or writing my name for the first time or something.

Ink

I kind of wish Lindsay Lohan's tattoo did say "La Bella Vista." Its trashy, but she's already trashy. Why not be all that you can be in your chosen field?

Who puts "the good life" on their bum anyway? I don't even think I know what it means.

DeconstructeD

I'm almost glad I missed PoweR Girls last night, so I could really, really appreciate this recap. Meta indeed.

I Am So ahead of the Curve

Gawker's just getting to Save Toby today. Who knew I'd be quicker than the Denton empire?

Moby v. Nick & Jessica. Advantage: Lachey

A few weeks ago, there was a lot of buzz about Moby's new record and his song "Beautiful", "inspired" by Nick and Jessica's "simpleness." (like all the scare quotes?) It made me roll my eyes at the time (Moby is soooo serious. Which is soooo boring.) I don't know why I didn't just forget about it, but the whole deal popped into my head this morning while I was supposed to be yoga-ing at the gym.

I can't help but think that Moby's shot at the aesthetically-pleasing N&J is underscored by a lack of understanding and tolerance (and theoretically, shouldn't Moby, of all people, be fabulously tolerant)? He calls them "simple" which to me suggests that he looks down on them for not being more openly intellectual.

Thing is, Nick and Jessica obviously have strongly held beliefs and are more than willing to share them with the adoring public. The whole Jessica-virgin thing for one. Jessica singing for the troops at USO shows. Nick refusing to buy a Canadian Christmas tree. A healthy respect for Miller Lite.

Not everyone can be the brightest kid in class and there's a lot to be said for understanding your strengths and running with them. And it seems to me that Nick and Jessica understand that as celebrities they have influence. Instead of going all Sarandon on their fans, though, they just try to lead by example. They're not shoving their morals down anyone's throats, either (unlike certain other celebs with their politics).

I didn't mean for this post to sound all "Nick and Jessica are the BEST!!!!!!" but it does seem to me that they handle their celebrity just fine and better than most. And I bet that if their politics were just a little different and if their morality was closer to hippie than heartland, Moby would have noooo problem with them at all.

Boogie Nights, Love Actually and the Beach Boys

At the end of last week, I watched the last 15 minutes of Boogie Nights for only the second time (the first was in the theater, back when it came originally came out, whenever that was). While I hadn't forgotten about the, um, synthetic nature of parts of the end of the movie, I had forgotten about some details.

When I turned it on, Marky Mark and company were at that guys house - the drug deal gone awry part. Hearing "Sister Christian" and "Jessie's Girl" was more than vaguely familiar, but I'd forgotten that both songs were on "Awesome Mix #6." Since the anatomy of mix tapes and their recent demise has been a favorite thought topic of mine of late, I was full of nostalgic excitement when the tape cut off in the middle of Sister Christian and flipped itself over. Ah, I remember those days. And they weren't even that long ago - the last time I saw that scene, I still had several solid tape-making years ahead of me.

It's just interesting to me that mix tapes, such a prominent force in my formative years (I spent hours thinking about what songs to put on tapes and in what order) was such a short-lived pop culture phenomenon. A 20-year blip. Makes me feel sad and special all at once.

And then, moving on from mix tapes, following the bad coke scene, the movie closed to the sounds of the Beach Boys "God Only Knows"...prominently featured in my highly praised list of music. And at the end of Love Actually.

Interesting, I thought, how appropriate the song felt in both those movies, which, at first glance, are not particularly similar. Except that maybe they are. There's definite "10th grade English essay topic" potential in that comparision, especially when you look at the song as a basis for connection. I'm certainly not going to write that essay (I say, mockingly, as though I didn't write an unsolicited essay on Gatsby a few months ago). But I will say that the song's made me think a lot about loss (and temporary regain) of innocence and how it manifests itself in different lives and, on a cultural level, in different environments/times.

If only I actually had a reason to write papers on stuff like that...

A Note to My Brother

Fiat jacket or no, I don't think you're cool enough for her. Sorry.

I Heard He Was in MD, but...

Why an Applebee's in College Park? Seriously, as if CP wasn't bad enough...Applebees?

Lebanese Opposition Girls Gone Wild

Almost every article or blog post I've read about Lebanon this week has been accompanied by at least one picture of a young, pretty Lebanese girl holding a sign and/or wearing a flag scarf. This picture (from the AP) was at the top of my weekly politics email from the Economist today. I mean, check out that angle. Seriously.

Annoyed with Myself

About a year and a half ago, right after I moved in with Cooper, my dad made me get rid of a bunch of boxes of old textbooks, papers and magazines I was storing in my parents' basement. (In theory, I was supposed to remove all traces of myself from their house, but I've just been ignoring my old dance dresses and dolls, knowing that he doesn't go in the rooms where they're stored.)

His reasoning was good: I had my own attic for all my crap. Unfortunately, instead of actually hauling all my old magazines to my new house, I threw most of them out. Though it seemed logical at the time. Not only would the magazines serve as a constant reminder of my massive credit card debt that I don't want to repeat, some of them are now actually somewhat valuable.

I tossed about ten issues of the now defunct, very cool, Baltimore-related design magazine Nest. The layout of the magazine was so cool I wish I still had them around just to look at. Plus, you can now buy old issues on eBay. Not that I'd sell mine necessarily but still...this will be a lesson for me.

More about Ringtones

This is the post I intended to write, before the quote from my previous post distracted me.

Cool article on ring tones. I tend to find almost anything Sasha Frere-Jones writes interesting, which is why I wish I remembered to read the New Yorker more often. I have it bookmarked...I just always get so caught up in refreshing Instapundit and Wonkette that I forget to check it.

Three things I noticed in particular:
1. Ring tones are a $4 billion global industry - each selling for about $2 a piece. I am clearly in the wrong industry. (then again, most of that money, it seems, is being sucked up into the black hole of the music industry, so maybe I'm not in the wrong place)

2. 56% of ring tones sold are hip hop. Apparently Lizzie Grubman was right. She's so great (kidding). I think she's so not pretty, too.

3. Frere-Jones talks about the tinny, transistor-like quality of master ring tones on older phones. I, myself, have never had a personalized ring tone and don't think I ever probably will (it would take me too long to pick one out, then I'd be forced to acknowledge that I was looking for the right combination of "coolness and irony" and I'd have to shoot myself). But for a while, my brother's old phone played a master of the 90210 theme song. Besides that it was a perfect song for his phone, something about the tinny quality of the transmission made it even better. Maybe it was because it did sound like history - and that show represents a great period of time in my personal history. But it sounded right.

That's it. I'm a little less disgusted with the "irony and coolness" thing now...certainly not entirely over it, though.

What's Wrong with This Quote

“I spent three days of productive work time listening to polyphonic ringtone versions of speed metal, trying to find exactly the ringtone that expressed my personality with enough irony and enough coolness that I could live with it going off ten times a day. In a quiet room, in a meeting, this phone’s gonna go off—what are they going to hear?”

They're kidding, right? A "thirty-something architect" said this to Sasha Frere-Jones, who then included it, seemingly unironically, in the middle of an otherwise interesting article about ring tones. I sincerely hope I accidentally read around the subtle mocking of this jackass.

Seriously - Three days? Speed metal? Irony and coolness? And turn your damn phone off during meetings!