I'm not quite a notorious fanner/liker, but I'm pretty bad, I'll admit. But sometimes I can't help myself. Yes, there are some dumb ones and some with spelling and grammar so horrific that I can't bring myself to fan them (a frequent conflict for me: If I come across a fan page that describes my life perfectly, but misuses your/you're, do I still fan it? Often, I'm tempted to remake the page with the correct usage so all those who care about grammar as much as I do would join my forces, but that'd feel like plagarism. Surely I'm overthinking this). Anyways, usually I really like Fanpages. The pop culture references, if not clever, are still pretty fun and the ones about life's little idiosyncrasies are really cute; it's nice to know other people do the silly things that I do and notice the silly little things I notice. The ones about people's texting and Facebooking habits might be my favorites; I like knowing that when not using face-to-face communication, the person I'm talking to might be doing the same equally quirky things as I'm doing.
Anyways, I'm not sure if this should go on Tumblr or on here, but I'll post it here and maybe this time it'll import to Tumblr correctly:
If I could sum up my life in 10 Facebook Fan Pages:
And while we're on the topic of wishes, for good measure, one that doesn't describe my life, but is a perfect combination of pop culture, childhood nostalgia, meta-commentary on Facebook trends under the guise of a facebook trend itsself [Most fan pages seem to be one of these]:
(If you read my last entry, surely you understand)
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
I feel bad.
I've been neglecting this site. For a Tumblr of all things. Yeah, I caved. And it isn't even a themed one (though I did register the name "FuckYeahMatchGame" should I ever want to get on that train).
I don't know, it's easy to post things, entries are meant to be short (I take way too long writing things for here and they turn out long and rambly). It's nice exercise in conciseness and I can post exorbitant (I always try to put an H in that word) amounts of Stevie Nicks pictures and people will love me for it (a very specific subset of people, mind you, but still...)
So, yeah, for silly pictures and drunken Fleetwood Mac faces, gohere. Again, angsty whining that I don't want you to see is for livejournal (If you don't have access to it, I'm probably writing about you...lol, jk, I have more important things to write about. Actually, yeah, I've prolly written about you, whoever you are. Not necessarily a bad thing.). And I'll try to be vaguely interesting when I post here. Deal?
But things here will likely still be long and rambly, unless I decide I really love microblogging (Wikipedia says Twitter is a microblogging service, which it totes is, but I've never thought of it that way before...I've always thought of it more as where you post what you ate for dinner after your facebook friends get sick of your daily "shower then work then eating pizza with @soandso and @soandso! and chillin all night!!! <3 <3" statuses (Which are totally fine when talking about a particularly exciting/fun day, and hey, I guess they're more individualized than "Can We Pretend That Airplanes In The Night Sky Are Like Shooting Stars I Could Really Use A Wish Right Now <3) (I just FB searched that line and as I was searching for it 2 more people out there in the world decided that line said everything they were feeling and felt the need to share it with their friends) (I'd be okay with all this if it some kind of epically classic song, but...) (I'm a fan of "not making your status the lyrics from Airplanes on facebook)(I'm prolly gonna lose a lot of Facebook friends over this post). Let's move on before I belittle anyone else's facebook statuses...I swear I'm not judging any of my Facebook friends in particular too harshly. Just overall. And I post superfluous Farmville/Treasure Isle/Frontierville [best game ever. Seriously. Even if you hate Farmville and the people who play it give this one a chance. There's going to be an Oregon Trail component at some point] things about clumsy reindeer and clobbering groundhogs on the head, so it's not like I'm the ideal Facebook friend.
Topic? A while ago in Pride Alliance we did this thing where we came up with stories where our gender affected us in some way, for better or for worse (usually for worse). I knew gender constructs were everywhere and affected everything, but I struggled to come up with stories that were both interesting/entertaining and thought provoking) But as of now I have a situation I wish I could've brought up, cause though it's a pretty common one, I don't know what to make of it. So yesterday I was boarding the metro, and I assume a Cardinals game was about to start, since the train was packed with Red-clad sports-fan-looking people. Anyways, I couldn't find a seat, so I stood up front and held on to the support bar thing, as did this other girl who got on the same time I did. So then this man who was sitting down signals for his pre-teen sons who are sitting in front of him to give up their seats for us. They didn't move at first, the other girl was like, "oh no, it's fine" and I had my iPod in so I pretended not to hear, cause I didn't want the kids to give up their seats. The man kept insisting, saying his kids "had to learn eventually" A bunch of thoughts ran through my mind:
(A) Damn, my backpack's heavy! And it's hot today and I sure am tired! I guess I'll take the seat. La di da. (The other girl and I both eventually sat)
(B) I'm getting off at the next stop, it's really alright, I don't need the seat.
(C) I don't want to make the kids disobey their dad and I don't want to take away his authority. I guess I'll sit. (I mean, he can raise his kids however he wants. I was just uncomfortable that I was dragged into the lesson he was teaching them when I didn't necessarily agree with it)
(D) If it's so important to you, why are you making your kids stand? Maybe I'm making false assumptions, but you seem perfectly capable of offering me your seat... (On a bad day, and if I had been feeling slightly bolder and if the guy hadn't been bigger and older and scary, I would've said this; it's probably what irked me the most. But if for some reason he'd been unable to stand I would've felt really bad)
(E) If you're trying to impress a woman, then sure, offer her your seat. Not because it's chivalrous, but because it's giving and she'll think you're a considerate person. But I don't think these kids want to pick me up or anything. And I hope their dad didn't want to.
(F) Eeeeee, Midwestern Hospitality! I love it!!! (I'm surprisingly traditional for someone so progressive. It's a shame that so many traditions have unfortunate implications)
(G) Raaaaaaar Listen, having a vagina doesn't mean I'm so weak that I can't stand upright for five minutes whilst traveling from point A to point B, so fuck off, mister I am crazy feminist hear me rrrrooooaaarrr Towandaaaaa! (This would've embarrassed everyone involved, myself and women everywhere included and especially the kids, and that's definitely not what i wanted to do. But it did cross my mind)
So I thanked the kids as I got off the metro, since I was thankful that they were nice about it and all, but after I started walking way from the station I was worried about what message I had just sent them. Like I don't know what I should've said in that situation, since kindly rejecting the seat didn't work and the kids had already stood up, but I wish I'd said something. Like if a guy holds a door for me or even if he offers me his seat on the metro because it's a nice thing to do, then great, that's very kind nice of him. But eventually these kids might think that while it's something they might not be inclined to do (which is fine. I wouldn't give up a comfy seat on a train unless someone really needed it. I mean, there's giving and there's catering to everyone's wishes) it's something expected (which it might be as of now), something necessary, and something women need men to do for them. Yet I'm sure the man didn't mean anything unfortunate by it and was just following how he'd been raised, and I'm sure he was a perfectly well-adjusted person and a great parent and he definitely stuck to what he believed in.
I don't know; sometimes my love/romanticism for all things old-fashioned comes into conflict with everything else I value.
So I took part in a psych experiment on body image today and I was going to segue into a rant about those and how sad some of the things I was asked on the survey made me feel (not because of my answers, but because of how I imagined others answered), and I started to write it, but I feel like I should do some research on the matter first before I say something insensitive/offensive/uneducated. So that's coming up. And if you have any ideas for an entry, on here, tumblr, LJ, or otherwise, let me know.
1) My blog's ugly, and it makes me sad. I wish web design were more my forte.
2) I kind of want a tumblr, but I think it would be narcissistic, even for me. Maybe I'll make a FuckYeah*InsertPersonHere* page, though I don't know what I'd make since this site (most useful web resource ever) told me that FuckYeahJodieFoster already existed. Ideas?
3) Rue McClanahan died? Sad...now Betty White's the only living Golden Girl. (I don't know if I mentioned how much I love Betty White here yet, but I do...Lately both she and Fannie Flagg have surpassed Charles Nelson Reilly in my ranking of favorite Match Game contestants. I know, unheard of.)
Anyways...
I used to love "Vacation" by the Go-Gos because it was in the Rugrats vacation special (where they go to Las Vegas and rescue the white "kitties" in the show...that must've been Harsher in Hindsight, post Roy Horn's tiger attack). The original played in the beginning and then Angelica butchered it later on:
(Sadly I couldn't find a video but here's the audio)
But now I like it because, well, I love the Go-Gos. If I could join any band, it would be them. Perfect balance of mall brat and rebel. And right about now the song says a lot. Gotta love Lyrical Dissonance (sorry for the second TV Tropes link...I should make a rule to only direct you all to that time sucker once per post...or just TropesRoll you without announcing it):
First of all, I don't condone Googling oneself, and that's not quite what I did, seeing as I Googled my online moniker to see if anyone was saying anything...not about me, but about my narcissistic means of self-expression...because they're different, right? Anyways, I found out there's another Sienna in the world who goes by "CallMeSiSi"...wut. I mean, I don't know if I'm more weirded out at the serendipity or saddened at my apparent lack of originality. But it's okay, other SiSi...if you choose to Google yourself and find this entry, consider it a peace offering.
You've probably already seen this, if you're Facebook friends with me or have talked to me at all lately. I myself have watched it a bajillion times so far and have raved about it extensively. Every time I watch it, I pick a favorite accent she does initially, but have a different favorite by the end, and each time my favorites are different. So in conclusion, I like them all. Okay, by "favorite" there, I mean the one she did best, there are some clear-cut accents that are the most audibly pleasing for me. (Is "audibly pleasing" the right phrase? You know what I mean.)
I find accents fascinating, and many people I've talked to agree. I don't really understand this fascination, though...why is how other people talk so much cooler than how we talk? Is it just the novelty of it? Why are some accents more attractive than others and why do those accents vary for different people? And where do accents come from, in the first place? Like, if a language is established with its own lexicon and whatnot, what prompts people in a certain area to start pronouncing things differently? How does a trend like that start-does it just take one person speaking differently and others catch on?
So, yeah, accents are fascinating in that sense, and some are just really attractive, and it's hard to quantify why. Sure, some individual people have smoother/more melodious/just more attractive voices than others, but how does something like that apply to a group of people in general? I've noticed trends in the accents I find attractive. Wikipedia taught me about rhotic and non-rhotic accents (the difference between "walker" and "walk-uh", "park" and "pahk") (also the reason why we have "ass" in the US and "arse" in the US, apparently...the British confusion used to confuse me. Also, does that mean the origins of the word hav nothing to do with the donkey?), and the non-rhotic (where the r is not pronounced) accents are much prettier to me. I guess this is part of why I like British (also cause of my childhood S Club 7 obsession) and Southern (also, recently, because of my Fried Green Tomatoes/Idgie Threadgoode obsession) accents. But then I also like Irish and Scottish accents, which are quite the opposite in this sense. I think in these cases I actually like the sound of the pronounced r's, just because they sound so different. I guess it's just cool to hear a language you know and have always spoken, but pronounced totally differently. The intonation of these languages also has something to do with it. (While I'm at it, can someone describe a Welsh accent to me? I feel like I have a grasp on every other main British Isles accent except that one and Youtube hasn't helped much)
I mean, I hate how it sounds, but I say "walkerrrrr" and "parrrrrk", because I'd sound rediculous otherwise unless I switched accents completely (and affected accents are silly in and of themselves.I've noticed that when I want to make a sarcastic comment, I'll switch pronunciation, I guess to indicate that I'm not serious. A sarcastic/snarky "nice" comes out as a British "noice" or a Southern "nahce"), so maybe that's why I appreciate prettier pronunciations so much. Though come to think of it, I don't really have a "Philly" accent, minus a few traits...like, Midwesterners have called me out on saying har-rible for "horrible" and far-est for "forest" (When I first heard those words pronounced with an "or" sound like in "four" I actually thought it was the weirdest thing, until I left the Northeast and found out that large populations do so) and I've been trying my best to say "wooder" for "water" (though unless I'm talking about water ice I usually revert to the non-Philly way of saying it. I've always said that I don't call our, uh, lovely football team the Iggles (okay, I don't really talk about them in general so maybe I should be referring to times I talk about the band), but this article made me realize I pronounce "vague" as "vegg", so maybe I do shorten my vowels. I pronounce "radiator" with "rad" instead of "raid"(this one I stand by...why would I want to acknowledge that an appliance in my house is giving off radiation-sounds quite unpleasant to me)
Still, I looked up the Philly dialect on Wikipedia and, while I still don't understand most characters in the International Phonetic Alphabet, from what I gathered from the page I don't pronounce things the way I theoretically should. Maybe I watched too much television growing up so I was influenced by other accents (I'm surprised and saddened that I didn't develop a British accent from all those years of watching Spice World and S Club 7 in *insert city here*)...though that does bring up the question of whether mass media is going to neutralize everyone's accents one day. That would be very sad...I guess future generations wouldn't even know the difference, but for me it would signify a further lack of national/regional identity, which seems to be the direction our society is taking already)...and accents are just so fun to listen to.
Hey, so I know I suck at Top 5 lists, but I'll try it again...closing this off with my Top 5 Favorite Accents of the Moment, in no particular order...
1. British, Londoner I suppose, though I really like Liverpudlian accents, and Brummie (a la Ozzy Osbourne...okay, maybe a bit toned down from him) accents have an interesting intonation.
2. Southern, though I don't think I'd be very happy living in the south, so I propose that lots of Southern ex-pats come be my friend and promise not to lose their accents (or at least keep a slight twang) and dress in adorable tomboyish 30s fashion and charm bees for me and...okay, I'm off topic. Sorry, got distracted. Leave me alone. I will say that my Idgie obsession makes perfect sense, seeing as I see so much of myself in Ruth Jamison (Like, I have the potential to be incredibly strong in the face of conflict, but I'd much rather smile sweetly and offer everyone a slice of pie as a peace offering)
3a. Castillian Spanish, whilst speaking Spanish
3b. Castillian Spanish, whilst speaking English. Actually, any Spanish-speaking person speaking English. I'd try everything before I'd make a Spanish teacher speak to me in English just because I didn't understand their Spanish, but getting them to Speak English because the sound of it brightens your academic day...
4. Irish (not being able to roll my R's in Spanish is a bit unfortunate, but not being able to do an Irish or Scottish accent because of it is downright sad.)
5. Minnesotan/Upper-Midwestern, even if it makes me think of Sarah Palin...actually, why does someone who was born in Idaho and spent her formative years in Alaska talk like that? reachingouttomiddleamericaFAIL?
Though I don't know if I'd actually want any of these accents, since I wouldn't appreciate them as much were that the case, in fact, they wouldn't seem like "accents" to me at all. It'd be cool to have a slight Southern twang or pronounce my o's kind of like a stereotypical Minnesotan would, but I'd still want to be able to squee! over people with really strong accents. Maybe if anything I'd just want a stronger Philly accent so I'd feel vaguely Philadelphian beyond the realm of soft pretzels and wooder ice and people would be able to identify me as such. Who knows...hey, if you feel like commenting (which I know you do)...what accents are your favorites on other people, and if you could have a different one, what would it be?
Hello, readers! To all my STL readers, I miss you like whoa and you all should come to Pennsylvania and play Yeah Dude with me right now.
So thus far, epic RENT night aside, my summer’s consisted of looking up animal hybrids on Wikipedia (check out the puma/leopard mix, the dwarf pumapard), checking my FormSpring which you all should ask me questions on, playing Treasure Isle on Facebook extensively and listening to more 4 Non Blondes than anyone should in a lifetime (Seriously, the “What’s Up” video is on demand and I’ve listened to it more than is healthy…it’s probably a good thing that I wasn’t the age I am now in the 90s, cause I’d be trying to emulate them like whoa.)
Anyways…it’s hard to believe I used to value sitting at home alone and learning about phantom big cats and whatnot more than anything in the world, cause I really can’t take much more of it right about now. Sure one day I’ll be able to wow someone with my knowledge of ligers and beefalo (which have apparently stunted buffalo conservation efforts like whoa), but it’s really not productive at all, and loses the fun value quite quickly.
But, yeah, even when I did genuinely enjoy sitting around doing nothing all the time, the highlight of the summer months was still the few weeks I'd go away to Girl Scout camp. For a total couch potato/only child, it was great to be around a big group of really awesome people spending time outside and doing really fun things...like the time I was in the travelers group (probably the best week at camp I had) when we went to the Delaware Water Gap (and they talked about the Shawnee tribe until shawnee didn't sound like a word anymore) and to Camelback Beach (I'm not a big water slide person, but I sure love wave pools...it's like being at the beach without the jellyfish and with a shitton of chemicals) on the 4th of July and spent the entire day imitating our British counselor's accents, because we thought they were the coolest ever (and we all felt really bad when we made "Ringo" (a girl scout camp counselor never reveals her real name...unless she does or you force it out of her...I got in trouble for telling people a counselor's name once) lost her belly button ring because we begged her to take it out and show us how it worked). (I'm on a roll with the run-ons and parentheticals today)...and the next year with my "Theater of the Mountains" group we went to see 42nd Street in town and it was...well, obviously a small town theater production (but hey, I just went and saw RENT at the Media theater and it was surprisingly awesome), but pretty fun.
I just tried to write a paragraph about how great camp was and ended up writing about how great not being at camp was. I promise we had fun on the campgrounds, too...we canoed (I was never a big canoing fan; your shoes got too muddy...I could deal with being grimy and having dirty clothes, but wet shoes are the one thing I really can't put up with for some reason), and funyaked (it's a little yellow floaty thing that you sat in the middle of, fwiw) (you could step into the funyak without getting completely soaked and for some reason the kayaking motion is much more fun than the canoeing one and you don't have to deal with sharing a boat with a slow paddler (though this one time I had to deal with a clingy campmate who made it her goal to link our funyaks together)).
And if you were willing to hike up a humungo hill you'd get to ride horses, which was really fun even though everyone there knew way more about horses than I did and this one time I steered the horse too hard and the scary barn leader yelled at me...and then the horse tried to buck me off and she ran over and was like "Wow, you handle that horse so well!" and affirmed that statement after the thing decided to step on my foot as I was demounting it.
Speaking of crazy animal experiences, there was the summer when the bears ran rampant. Over the counselors' radios, we'd hear them talk about "Code B's" all over camp, but they wouldn't tell us what a Code B was...we quickly hypothesized that we were dealing with a Code B(ear), and everyone got really excited, though I was a bit skeptic. This next story starts with something totally out of character for me...I'd joined Roadrunners, and we woke up at ungodly hours to go for runs (yeah, I know...I was with the lagging group in the back in case you hadn't assumed that). I was walking back to my tent with someone else in my unit when I stopped dead in my tracks...there was nobody else around...except for a baby bear eating a big rubber band. I calmly tapped my friend on the shoulder and was like, "Hey, what's that?". "What's what?" "The bear!" and she looked up and freaked...quietly freaked, since being loud around a baby bear...I mean the baby prolly couldn't do much, but where there's a baby animal there's a crazy mother (I got attacked by a mother goose last year, so I know). So we stood there until it ran away and then went to our counselor who reported it and everyone in the camp found out and there was a hoopla and everyone thought I was really cool. It was a triumph of sorts, I suppose. And then one time was one either inside or just outside the mess hall and they had to chase it away and we all watched from a distance and by then they couldn't pretend there weren't bear around it was really exciting. Who needs danger perception, anyway?
And all the nights we'd stay up singing (This one time a counselor came to our tent to give us our nightly option of a "handshake, hug, or ET touch" [we always took all 3] and we ended up singing "Thank You" by Dido with her so now that song reminds me of camp) and playing truth or dare and the "nervous game" (and somehow I got the repuation of being the prudish one...in a group of 12 year olds, mind you) and gossiping about other campers (During the travelers unit we ended up splitting up into 2 cliques...which were like the city people and the surburban ones, which seems really awful now, but at the time it was fun...I mean, everyone was in one and it's not like we were outright excluding everyone and the cool, urban kids liked me just fine even though I was from suburbia (which was good because I was with most of them in Theater of the Mountains so it would've been bad if they had recognized me as that girl from the rival clique) so its okay...right? Okay, fine...but I'm sure you weren't a nice person when you were 12, either)
But my favorite part of camp was also my least favorite, because it was the last night of each session, when we would have a campfire/singalong/talent show. We'd do the same skits every year (except when I was in the acting one, when we decided we needed a good skit so we did a good one, though I forget what it was...we also did a modern version of Cinderella which I narrated and when we raised/took down the flag some of the girls did a step routine...I meanwhile stood by the flag lamely and gave all the orders). But anyways...usually the skits were the Magic Blanket skit (in which people would through things over a blanket and they'd come back double in size until a skeptic spit on it and then got hit with a bucket of water) and the "and then I heard a knock, a knock, a knock, and I thought it was Cecilia, Cecilia, Cecilia!" one and "If I were not a camper, I wonder what I'd be, If I were not a camper, *insert counselors name here* is what I'd be! *Insert something the counselor said here*"...or, conversely, "A birdwatcher's what I'd be! Hark, a lark, sitting in the park! *Crack an egg over head, pretend it's bird shit, hilarity ensues*"
So we'd sing some silly songs...they were the songs that I'd sing all through the school years to get funny looks from people, so it was pretty sweet to go to camp and burst out in a silly song and simply have those around me join in ("Baby shark, do do do do do do do"..."There's a hole in the bucket, dear Eliza, dear Eliza!"..."Oh I had a little chickie and it wouldn't lay an egg so I rubbed hot water up and down its legs! Oh, the little chickie hollered and the little chickie begged...and the little Chickie laid a hard-boiled egg!" and the "Just a boy and a girl in a little canoe..." song which ended with a girl paddling a canoe and the boy that she kicked out of the boat swimming all around...in the same misandric vein, the song that started with a girl sitting 'neath the lilacs and playing a guitar and then she meets a guy smoking a cigar and she dies and he becomes a douchebag and then he is killed by her tombstone and the moral of this song, according to the counselors, was "never tell lies", but we always sang "never trust guys!"
Oh, girl scout camp...
If you're still with me after that last paragraph, then thanks for putting up with my ramblings...so after alternating between silly skits and silly songs we'd calm down and sing some more solemn songs, like "On My Honor" which was full of sappy, heartwarming Girl Scout-y values, "Red Balloon" and "Spider's Web", which was one of my favorites:
My other favorite was "Linger", which IIRC I got up and attempted to sing at my high school's last meeting for worship before graduation and prolly embarrassed myself like whoa...but anyways, there are lots of versions of it, I believe, but ours went:
I want to linger A little longer A little longer here with you it's such a perfect night, it doesn't seem quite right that it should be my last with you and come September we'll all remember and as the years go by I'll think of you and sigh this is goodnight and not goodbye
And everyone would get all sappy and sentimental and give big hugs and we'd link hands and sing Taps and there would be a phantom trumpet playing it from the activities lodge (I don't know who the player was, still) And then the next day would be come, and it would be over...until the next year.
The last year I went things sort of fell apart, at least with my group of friends...drama, people getting in trouble for cigarettes and stuff, a giant foodfight, and then I didn't go back because everyone decided not to go back, either...Sad, sad...but at least it was fun for the time being! And it's so aweosme to meet someone else who went to Girl Scout camp and to compare experiences and campfire songs. So...if you're reading this and went to camp...what songs did you sing?
P.S. Go here for lots of great camp songs! P.P.S. Sorry for the wonky fonts...I don't know what happened.
I'm sure there are intelligent things I could be doing-like studying, and if I'm going to instead waste time on this blog I could be writing about something intelligent, but I just feel like doing something fun (okay, I ended up analyzing everything below, albeit not very well). I was going to write about Girl Scout Camp back in the day and how much I miss it, but (a) that has potential to be sappy sappy, and (b) Carrie Brownstein (of Sleater-Kinney) just beat me to it in writing a blog post about her favorite summer camp songs and I could take it as coincidence, or as a sign that I should or should not write my post, but for the time being I'm going to not be a copy cat. Not that Carrie and I have overlapping readership or anything...I'm sure that post will come soon enough.
Anyways, hmm...pure, unadulterated fun...I know! I present to you...
Sienna's Guiltiest Pleasures
Actually, I'm sure I'll forget some of the guilty ones. And I already established that I'm bad at Top 5/Top 10 Lists (Yeah, I'm still not a together person...but I guess Rob Fleming wasn't, either...) I'm not even sure I'm going to feel like writing explanations for each one...I guess it's not really necessary. I mean, if you like something, you like something. Actually, I'm not sure how guilty/embarrassed I feel about any of these. I kind of want to re-name this "Things Sienna Likes That Other People Judge Her For, Yet She Goes On Liking Them", but that doesn't flow nicely.
I mean, sure, when other people are discussing great American literature that they're fond of and then I really want to chime in with how I *love* Valley of the Dolls I usually hold back...there are some things that truly are in bad taste for me to like. But for a lot of these I don't know why they're considered bad/tacky/low-class/whatver. As long as something's not outright offensive, what's wrong with liking it? I think the fact that we consider some things to be in bad taste when there's no real reason for it is pretty pretentious. There are plenty of things that I like for irony's sake, but lately I've been feeling bad about that. The whole irony thing is often a bunch of privileged and/or "in-crowd" people deciding to deride something that someone else either genuinely likes or, in other cases, has to purchase/wear out of necessity. I should probably cut that out.
(I still want a Three Wolf Moon shirt)
So I guess I'll start with the aforementioned Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann...I think I've read this book, with its adorable pink cover with the pill cut-outs, like 5 times. Long story short: A young woman leaves her New England hometown to go to New York City and make a name for herself, gets caught up in showbiz and becomes a drug addict. I knew I was going to love it when I read the godawful poem (Poem? I think that's what Susann was going for) in the front of the book...I like it because it sounds an awful lot like any poetry I've ever tried to write. Then..."...New York was steaming-an angry concrete animal caught unawares in an unreasonable hot spell"...and you're off! This is the book that started my trashy novel phase in high school, from Jackie Collins to such gems as Wanton Slave (which floated around my school's hallways, for some reason) and I Shocked the Sheriff. The story just sucks you in...and you read, and you read, and you read, and in the end you don't feel like you've gained anything at all, except a chance to escape and to realize that your life isn't that bad. There was also a movie made of it, which is now a camp classic (Susann allegedly walked out of the screening in disgust), but the book's the best. Reading is always more intelligent than watching a movie, right? (Go here if you want to read some of it...or just ask to borrow my copy..I'm glad to spread the love)
Next, a few musical guilty pleasures for you...I think I posted some of these on Facebook a while back so bear with me if you're a true cyber-stalker who's seen these already.
Vixen: Edge of a Broken Heart
I really don't know why I like some 80s Hair Metal. I guess I'm just a sucker for a good guitar riff. And female rock musicians are my favorite thing ever, hence the Vixen love, ... I mean, yeah, they're all wearing tight clothing (though I guess male Hair metal musicians dressed exactly the same...equal opportunity works in weird ways) and whining about heartbreak in most of their songs, but if you get past that they're just as talented as any 80s metal band (not saying much?) And the big hair and flashy clothes are just too awesome to pass up.
This was my favorite song in the 4th or 5th grade. I remember my best friend and I had learned the lyrics to like every song on MTV or VH1 (they played music? whoa) and would sing them at our school's after school program, and this was one of them. I don't know how I feel about the fact that little 10 year old me was running around singing about battling domestic violence with domestic violence. Actually, I know exactly how I feel about that, so if anything, that's why this song is a guilty pleasure. (No guilt about liking the Dixie Chicks...In fact, after sitting through Robert Altman's Nashville I sort of have a soft spot for country music...Okay, maybe not a soft spot as much as an infatuation with an element of Americana to which I've never felt much of an affinity)
Wilson Phillips: The Dream is Still Alive
I love, love, loooooove Wilson Phillips. I grew up listening to Carnie and Wendy Wilson's Christmas album every December, which I'm sure has a lot to with it (I'm planning a really aweosme post for July 25, FWIW...My Christmas Songs post was going to be for December but I don't think I can wait that long). And music from the 90s makes me very happy, as a reminder of my childhood-they were like the cool big kids that I wanted to be when I grew up (Yeah, I still want to dress like them). Plus, if you're the child of hippies you're like automatically aweosme until proven otherwise in my book (I chose this song becasue it reflects that...whee, being nostalgic for/trying to live the life of your parent's generation!). And depsite the fact that, "Hold On" aside, they're mainly known for Carnie's size (I mean, really?) (Also, I can't believe how far behind I am on her reality show...unheard of!) and for having batshit families (Carnie and Wendy Wilson are the daughters of a Beach Boy, and Chynna Phillips the daughter of a Mama & a Papa and there was weird stuff with her dad and her half sister and blah blah), they're actually quite talented...I wish I had people I could harmonize like that with!
Grateful Dead: Casey Jones Indigo Girls: Uncle John's Band
Okay, so I actually really like the Indigo Girls, and I really like the Grateful Dead. And I really really like the Indigo Girls covering the Grateful Dead. But I don't like fitting stereotypes, and I feel like the fact that I really like the aforementioned groups show how I fit various labels to a tee, and that makes me uncomfortable. So sometimes I pretend to like things ironically so I'm not some type of sterotype, but self-derision isn't any better than deriding someone else's taste (and if I ever get that Jeep Wrangler I was eying this morning...I wouldn't know how to pass such a big purchase off as ironic; I'd just have to go with it. Same with a hippie van or some little eco-friendly car...which I guess Jeeps aren't.). Really, going out of your way to reject stereotypes is as bad a going out of your way to propogate them or push them on others; you're still affirming the existence of the stereotype.
The best part of the Indigo Girls covering "Uncle John's Band" is the "Sister, well i declare..." line and "Ain't no time to hate, sister, barely time to wait" thing they added. I was like "They would..."
The best part of "Casey Jones" is...the whole thing! After "Touch of Grey", I think this was the first Dead song I heard and after bursting out in laughter on, the "high on cocaine" line I had another "They Would" moment...So why can't I have "I would" moments in my own life?
Speaking of stereotypes, let's move on to movies. Something I am actually reluctant to say that I like, something I've never liked ironically; I've tried to dislike it but I seriously can't look away, it's like a car crash (which I think ties into the movie somehow): Basic Instinct. I mean, gay rights groups picketed the movie with signs spoling the ending : [highlight for spoiler] She's the killer [highlight for spoiler] because of its portrayal of queer women as hypersexual psychos/killers/psycho-killers. And that hasn't really changed in time (Ohai, Jenny Schecter, and...whoever the fuck actually killed her). Judging by the length of the "Psycho Lesbian" and "Depraved Bisexual" pages on TV Tropes (I advise waiting until after exams are over before you explore TV Tropes...it can take up your entire day/week/life), it's quite a problem. Yet I don't think therein lies my specific problem with this movie; I think my problem with it is just with the over-the-top sex and violence (often conflated) in general. Let's compare it with Mulholland Drive, one of my favorite movies and far, far, from a guilty pleasure: because I feel no guilt about liking it, and instead of bringing me pleasure it actually makes me really sad. But anyways...Mulholland Drive has lots of sex and violence, and I've seen it like 10 times and still don't really understand the plot, but from what I gather [highlight for spoiler] The female protagonist's girlfriend leaves her for a man. so the protagonist goes crazy, hires a hitman to kill the GF and then kills herself [highlight for spoiler] (I'm sure that spoiler's tempting you sorely...and even if you're planning on watching the film but have yet to see it I might acutally advise reading a few spoilers first or you'll have no clue what's going on). On paper its plot doesn't the sound much better than Basic Instinct's. But the sex and violence is much more tasteful (there's the concept of "taste" again...anyone want to delve deeper into that for me?) in Mulholland Drive, and the film's widely known as a masterpiece; the narrative and cinematography are works of art; David Lynch doesn't make exploitation films (can't really quantify what he makes, though). I think the reason I feel guilty about liking Basic Instinct is that it doesn't have artistic mertit to fall back on so it relies solely on gratuitous sex and hacking away at people with ice picks. Plus, usually I think it's a good thing when characters in movies and such just happen to be LGBT without it having to do with the overarching themes of the work, but in this case there's no real reason for Catherine Tramell to be bisexual other than to tantalize and in the context of a movie about a murderer it's kind of an awful idea. The relationship between the women in Mulholland Drive contributes to the plot and even though Diane's actions are questionable, I always want to give her a hug. But, yeah, my issue with Basic Instinct is still mainly that it's a bad movie (but it's so enthralling, still!) (and apparently better than the sequel)
(I bet this is gonna be the day that my entire family reads my blog...just as I'm leaving to go home for the summer...SWEET timing)
I really didn't want to deconstruct all my favorite things, but I'm doing just that...Hm...what's something I like, and my guilt about it comes from an obvious place...*clap*clap* Xanadu!
Starring Gene Kelly and Olivia Newton-John (and some guy who couldn't sing yet got cast in a musical and probably never made another movie). It's about this guy who paints replicas of album covers and hates his job...and then this muse visits him and he is inspired to open up a roller disco that combines elements from the dying days of disco with elements from the 1940s. And they sing about it. And there's this random Disney-esque animated sequence in the middle that makes no sense. And the special effects make me thing of We Have Lasers. I'm not making any of this up. Actually, the music is pretty awesome-Gene Kelly and ONJ are musical staples and there's tons of Electric Light Orchestra. That's the only real redeeming quality to this movie, yet I don't think that's why I really like it; I think it's just so rediculous that it's amazing.
Here's the trailer, which makes it seem like an updated Footlight Parade or some grand musical spectacle of that sort:
Expect a pt. 2 to this sometime, but for now I need to actually get stuff done today. Oh, reading week...where have you gone? What have I accomplished? LeSigh.
If anyone feels like commenting, leave some of your guilty pleasures! Analysis optional.
