User:	rockmarooned
	Date:	2009-07-12 23:22
	Subject:	Wake up call
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	LOL this is terrible
	Music:	The Climb - Miley Cyrus (Marisa said I have to hear it for science)

One down: I saw the movie version of my beloved book I Love You, Beth Cooper. If anything, the movie will only cause me to overhype the book more, because the movie represents a lot of what could've gone wrong with the book but mostly didn't. Actually, the movie is slightly better than the reviews said, but only because they are terrible rather than mediocre. My own review will be up soon at the L Mag blog, but for now I'll say that the movie is actually quite faithful to the events of the book -- Larry Doyle wrote both, and his script probably could've been turned into a pretty solid movie by a director who knows what he's doing. Chris Columbus has become sort of an easy target after everyone realized how lame the first two Harry Potter movies are -- in fact, by now, among some nerds (not the ones who prefer his Potter pictures for being the most literally faithful), he's almost more reviled for those than his movies that are actually awful (Bicentennial Man, Stepmom, Home Alone 2). But I Love You, Beth Cooper is a clear reminder of his many weaknesses, mainly for underlining and loudening and cartoonifying the comedy and over-scoring the sentiment. The cast is pretty good all around: even the main guy who looks his decade-past-high-school actual age has some nice moments; even certified entertainer of her generation Hayden Panettiere acquits herself well. Also, is blazin. But having some good performances, some laughs, and being better than miserable reviews doesn't really cut it when you're making a movie out of a hugely entertaining book. At least now I can concentrate all of my energy on Time Traveler's Wife worry (and at least District 9 comes out the same day).

In other comedy news, Marisa and Rayme and Dave and my sister and I saw Bruno today, and I enjoyed it. Bruno isn't as durable or weirdly likable a character as Borat, but this movie's pranks and gotchas and line-crossings are about as funny as that one's. Neither of them are straight-up classics with the rewatchability of my favorite comedies, but Cohen does his thing for eighty minutes, there are some huge laughs, some bits that work better than others, and that's that. I'm a little surprised that the movie has taken flak for being offensive to gays. It's definitely caricature, and some portion of the frat-boy/dumbass/bigoted audience may not get that it's caricature, but you can't really do comedy with how the world's least savvy people might misinterpret, can you? I dunno, I'd rather have the vain, slutty, ignorant Bruno who actually expresses sexuality than the neutered Gay Best Friend character who functions as a sitcom accessory. At least Bruno is funny.

Between movies, Marisa and I went out to a part of Brooklyn that we have not exactly classified yet, possibly Ditmas Park, it had lawns and driveways, it was weird, and nice, I'll add it to the list of nice places that I can't afford to live even if it does take an hour to get there on the subway. We were there for Tom & Maggie's engagement party. Charming entities there besides Tom and Maggie themselves: Jon. Andrew's parents. Pettable cats. Cake.

Also: I played Michigan Rummy with Marisa and Nathaniel, and won. And then we played Scrabble on the roof, and I won. My unusual twin victories shall not be tainted with the fact that we may have been playing Michigan Rummy slightly incorrectly. And then we ate pie that Nathaniel baked, and everyone won.

Index of stuff you should do with me even if I haven't nagged you on an email you didn't read:

*Evil Dead 2 in McCarren Park.
*Harry Potter and the Friday Ziegfeld.
*Siren Must Fest
*All Points West Day One!

	User:	slightlyoffaxis
	Date:	2009-07-12 23:13
	Subject:	Double agenting.
	Security:	Public
	Music:	Jesse listening to Hayden Panettiere

This weekend, after eating pie on the roof (because my life is awesome), I went to an area in Brooklyn that I'd never been to before. I'm still not sure exactly what neighborhood it's considered. It was pretty awesome. There were houses with lawns and driveways and big trees in the front yards. After hanging out for a while, we went to a bar that's a flower shop during the day, and a bourbon bar/music venue at night.

This is another thing that makes me realize how much I lead a double life. I spend my days in the neighborhood where I grew up. I'm pretty much aware of every thing going on in the whole county. It's my job to know, but I can still drive down some streets and tell you the past five businesses that have been operating in a single building. The county keeps no secrets from me. I just have to wait for new things to happen there.

Then, I spend my nights and weekends in a county that's still half undisovered by me. It's exciting that there's still so much to explore. On the other hand, it feels kind of strange not to be aware of every single thing that's going on or how a neighborhood is now compared to five or ten years ago. (Restaurants provide a perfect example of what I mean. I've been to almost every noteworthy restaurant in Westchester--again, mostly through work--as well as most of the restaurants that those restaurants used to be. I wouldn't be able to even attempt that with Brooklyn.)

So, yeah, I feel like such a newbie sometimes! I guess it's good that I still have secrets to uncover, but I like feeling in the know. I guess it's good I lead a double life, then.

	User:	cleolinda
	Date:	2009-07-12 10:59
	Subject:	'Sup
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	nrrrrgh
	Music:	Angelfish (Shirley Manson) - Kimberly

So. Stuff.

We all went out to New York Pizza for Valkyrie's birthday yesterday (I am slightly obsessed with their Fire Island Fajita pizza. IT COMES WITH SALSA!), and then we went to see The Lovely Emily's new house, which is awesome, although I think the first words out of my mouth were, "God, it's huge! --You got yourself a lotta pokeweed there." But it really is awesome (it has an entire Rock Band room).

Finally going to try to learn to knit. Knittinghelp.com is going to be my first stop. My first project is going to be a practice scarf with a bit of leftover yarn on which I can try out random techniques. More of a "scarf," really. I'd really like to knit Lyra a little knee-length pink cardigan, but... that's probably years away, in terms of knitting experience.

I think I have a cavity between two molars. Maybe it's just gum inflammation, but my hopes are not high. I have a dental cleaning appointment at the end of the month anyway, so... whatever.

Dying of cramps. You needed to know this, I'm sure. But at least when I say "I'm feeling really bad today," you'll know I don't mean it emotionally.

A few key linkspam items:

Ryan Reynolds Lands 'Green Lantern'! I'm going to be really interested to see how this does or does not affect his Deadpool movie. (However: congratulations, Green Lantern movie! You now get a tag.)

New Moon and Cameron!Avatar panels rescheduled to avoid riots; The Horrors of Comic-Con 2009: Saturday; GIRLS AT COMIC-CON! GET IN THE CAR.

First Look: Wes Anderson's Version of 'Fantastic Mr. Fox.'

'True Blood' gets truly great with new episode tonight.

"I am not a hero for turning you on, and neither is John Barrowman."

Fin.

	User:	anyway413
	Date:	2009-07-12 00:22
	Subject:	really?
	Security:	Public

Why does no one bang on the door at odd hours of the night when Seth's home?

It's not the most comforting thing to wake up to claps of thunder, and banging on the door. Also, dude wouldn't stop until I answered. And proceeded to ring and knock at two more doors, come back downstairs, and make a loud phone call right outside my door – apparently it was mythical apartment 13 and not us, 1B, or 1D that was on his order (you'd think he'd have been less persistent at my door, given that it wasn't my number on the order).  And then he went back upstairs, and rang the bell for the apartment with the dog before leaving. 

Sigh. 

	User:	petit_chou
	Date:	2009-07-11 19:52
	Subject:	Three bugs in a rug
	Security:	Public

Three bugs in a rug
Originally uploaded by littlecabbage

	User:	cleolinda
	Date:	2009-07-10 08:02
	Subject:	The confession
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	time for breakfast
	Music:	Whitesnake - Is This Love

So: back to The Shelf.

Some days you do the best you can just to keep it all afloat. Gladdy and I settled down into a hard-working routine--me trying to finish my e-book project, and her trying to unravel the alethiometer prophecy, such as it was (next up: tea leaves).

( A truly harrowing experience, let me tell you )

	User:	cleolinda
	Date:	2009-07-09 15:36
	Subject:	Since people are already emailing me
	Security:	Public

Ah, we finally have an image for the Comic-Con exclusive Tonner Edward, courtesy of the Tonner email newsletter that I subscribe to religiously:

( Read more... )

The hair is rather meek, and for a full $129 I wish it had more accessories than "a shirt,"* but it does seem to have the black eyes to indicate "hunger" (~*EXCITING VARIATION!*~), and I have to say? This is the least horrifying/most accurate product image of the character that they've put up yet. I mean, compared to my doll's prototype pictures.

* YOU'RE KILLING ME HERE, PEOPLE. IT'S THE SAME DOLL, EXCEPT THIS TIME IT'S DEPRESSED. IT HAS LESS STUFF THAN THE FIRST ONE; IT DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A JACKET. YOU CAN'T THROW IN SOME EXTRA CLOTHES? A SPARKLE VENEER? A TINY MOUNTAIN LION? COME ON.

I mention this specifically just to let y'all know not to worry about trying to get one for me (as I'd previously asked--for someone to snag one at the convention, and I would have paid them back). I'd like to get one, but I think I'm going to get my bargain hunter on and go to eBay after the convention. Besides, like I said last time, no one would have any way of knowing who else might or might not have snagged one, and I'd end up with seven Edward v2s WHO HAVE NO ACCESSORIES and no way to pay everyone back.


Also: WHOA BLACK CANARY. They really need to lay off using the Lara Croft body (literally, that is the Lara Croft body sculpt) on every single flippin' DC doll.

	User:	cleolinda
	Date:	2009-07-09 13:22
	Subject:	Just checking in
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	restless
	Music:	Garbage - Lick the Pavement

Miscellany:

I have tickets to Midnight Harry Potter! The Lovely Emily and I have done this for years now--maybe since Prisoner of Azkaban; certainly since Goblet of Fire, I can't remember. (I think GOF was the one where she nearly killed some photo-with-flash-taking kids in the row in front of us. With her knitting needles. And if she was knitting, it was probably November--rather than, say, summer--which would make it Goblet of Fire. Meeeeemorieeeeees...)

Got three tiny packages in the mail, one of them addressed to "Anna Dollerious." You are all very, very strange people, and I love you.

(What was in one of them:)

I JUST WANT TO BE A DOPER PERSON
WHICH STARTS WITH ME NOT ALWAYS TELLING PEOPLE HOW DOPE I THINK I AM

	User:	slightlyoffaxis
	Date:	2009-07-08 19:37
	Subject:	Always let your conscience be your guide.
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	ennui
	Music:	whistling

I assisted with a couple of mix cds recently. Neither were 100 percent my creation, though I was captain of the second one.

The first was a cd for Nathaniel's birthday. Jesse's been making birthday cds for a solid year-and-a-half every time an occasion has come up, so it's really his thing, but I got to help pick out the songs. I love making a cd for someone for the first time because you can use all of the best songs. Also, since it's for Nathaniel, there's a distinct sci-fi bent.

( Tracklist: Flowers Die and So Will I [Not My Title] )

The second cd was for the cd club that I moonlight in, where each week someone proposes a theme and everyone sends in a corresponding song. I just put mine in the mail, and the theme I chose was "whistling." I didn't have a choice really over the tracklist (some people veto, but I feel like bad taste should be flaunted in public where it can be mocked), but I did get to choose some songs and pick the sequence. After I made this, I realized that if you hear a lot of songs with whistles all in a row, all the whistles sound fake.

( Tracklist: Whistle When You're Low )

Now I'm just gearing up for the big CD game. I think I've chosen a theme. I hope it's not too abstract--I have to defend my reigning-champ title!

	User:	anyway413
	Date:	2009-07-08 11:13
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Today while working I've got Shear Genius on in the background. They're (mis)using food as hair products at the moment (i.e. cutting an avocado into a flower and sticking it into hair instead of, say, making a hair product out of avocados (let's not talk about the squid)). It makes me want more than ever for there to be a bravo super-reality show – hair, models, room design, clothes, etc. – which I've thought for a while, but could never figure out how to work in the top chef component. Problem solved.  This as a quickfire, and then a party/meal at the end as the main challenge. It could be a whole several-week series, top chef masters style, where you see the whole thing come together bit by bit as the contestants compete to do the hair/clothes/modeling/food/room design/etc. and then the winners go on to a two hour event where the overall winner is the one whose component is judged the best. This is obviously going to happen sometime, right?

	User:	cleolinda
	Date:	2009-07-07 05:37
	Subject:	In which another Edward finally approaches a Bella
	Security:	Public
	Music:	Garbage - It's All Over But The Crying

"I can never--never--even look her--in the eye agaaaaain!"

	User:	cleolinda
	Date:	2009-07-06 17:05
	Subject:	Feeling a *little* bit better
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	hungry
	Music:	Garbage - Why Don't You Come Over

Re: Friday's Secret Life: People do this every time one of the characters refers to "Miss Cleo," so--I just want you to know that I'm not trying to hint that you have to call me that. I'm not a TV hotline psychic or the little old lady down the street or anything. Plain "Cleo" is just fine.

Also, if you feel creative in the comments or something, this is precisely what folks created slodfans for. I mean, fanfic of fanfic will probably destroy the universe, but that's what it's there for. (Newest post: Icons!)

(This afternoon: more guerilla photography, lest I get busted taking pictures of vintage toys again. "Is that--" "NO!" "--one of my forks?" "... Maybe." I did discover that the NECA action figures do have a bit more bendability than I had originally thought. I also put two characters close together in the same shot for the first time and it is TERRIFYING. Like something out of Gulliver's Travels, for real. Anyway. That'll probably go up tomorrow.)

I've rambled on too long already, so: remind me to tell you what I ended up doing to rescue my hair for the next chatty/linky post.

Meanwhile, I totally, deplorably forgot to link the big first-anniversary Made of Fail episode when it came out; there's also a poll up for you to weigh in as to whether you like the new intro better than the old one. (I'll be guesting on the next epsiode, which will be Harry Potter-themed.)

Also-also, from lightlack: "I was wondering if in one of your future linkspam posts, you might be able to post something about this story in the LA Times about a very young girl with severe schizophrenia. I don't know this family personally, but they're friends of a friend, and after I read the article I wanted to help spread the story, in case somebody out there with connections might know of some resources that could help this little girl out."

( Linkspam of major WTF )

	User:	rockmarooned
	Date:	2009-07-05 16:02
	Subject:	Men at work
	Security:	Public

Before the actual holiday, I saw a couple of all-American movies. Marisa and Sara and I caught Public Enemies on Thursday night, and it's the best Michael Mann movie since The Insider ten years ago. The movie's tone is curious: it has the emotional distance and deliberate pace of a procedural, but Mann doesn't actually spend a lot of time on how John Dillinger plans his bank robberies, or even how the feds stay on his tail (though there are some interesting detective details). Though the set-up is not dissimilar to Mann's Heat, Public Enemies is cooler, less operatic, less concerned with the ins and outs of criminal and law-enforcement organizations. It simply gives us a small section of Dillinger's life, which was mostly Dillinger's business, which was mostly robbing banks and then laying low, hiding out. In this way, it reminded me of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, though Mann obviously has his eye on more action than that anti-Western.

In action or not, though, Public Enemies is gorgeously shot, full of striking and memorable images that -- take note, Michael Bay -- actually fit together as a coherent whole. Mann has used digital video before, on Miami Vice and Collateral, mostly to accentuate the depth of vision in their many night scenes. There are several vivid night scenes in Enemies, too, but he also uses DV beautifully in the daytime -- I love the white-sky effect he gets in the opening prison break -- and while Dillinger is emotionally distant, the audience gets physically close to the action. There are a few moments where Mann's refusal of exposition gets the best of him and it's hard to tell exactly what is happening, but for the most part I found it oddly fascinating.

Then on Friday, Marisa and Jon and I went to see The Hurt Locker. I'd hesitate slightly before calling it overrated, because it's a solid movie, very well-acted and compelling, but it was maybe a touch overhyped to me. From the ecstastic, often breathless reviews, I got the impression that this Iraq war movie was sort of an indie version of The Kingdom -- a tightly coiled thriller but with more grit, less starpower, and more psychological realism. Though The Hurt Locker certainly has action and suspense, it's really more of a character study (and there I am, applying expectations of what kind of movie I expected to see, not what kind of movie this actually is). As a character study, though, I'm not sure if it has all that much depth; you sense what's going on with this character more or less at the beginning, and from that point you're just watching it play out. That's not to discount the skill: Jeremy Renner, in particular, is excellent in the lead, and Kathryn Bigelow balances character and action better than many directors can handle either. It's a good movie; I was only a little bit underwhelmed.

More movie notes:

*Lots of the type of people I'd typically see Bruno with are going to be out of town or busy this coming weekend, so I may wind up going to see I Love You, Beth Cooper first. That and The Time Traveler's Wife are still a source of great worry. I'm not used to seeing movies of books I love, because I usually either see the movie first (High Fidelity! Trainspotting!) or the movie never gets made (Kavalier & Clay, all short story collections).

*Marisa and Nathaniel and I are eyeing this Movies with a View presentation of Raising Arizona on Thursday, and Nathaniel and I are both thinking Evil Dead 2 in McCarren Park next Wednesday has to happen, too. Anyone else in?

*We're watching Jaws tonight; that and reading some past Fourth of July posts and the S-video cable I finally bought have made me want to throw on the Spielberg War of the Worlds.

	User:	rockmarooned
	Date:	2009-07-05 01:32
	Subject:	USA! USA!
	Security:	Public
	Music:	fireworks... it really doesn't stop

Finding a proper barbecue in NYC can be disappointingly challenging, so when they announced that this year's River to River July 4th concert would be Conor Oberst with Jenny Lewis, Marisa and I decided this would be our BBQ substitute for the holiday and committed to getting in. So this morning we got to Battery Park at 9:30AM and once we figured out where the line was starting, we were soon joined by Kyla, Andrew & Abby, and Katie. A few other friends-of-friends flitted in and out as the afternoon went on, but this became our core for the day. The line was led slowly around a maze of barricades, so we waited in line in like three different places over the course of the four hours before we were let in to the field and set up a blanket towards the front. Then it was hot for awhile. But the food helped. Collectively, we had bread, cheese, bagels, hummus, veggies, pita bread, pita chips, cookies -- and fruit leather that no one wanted to eat but me. So we sat and ate and sweat a bit.

When Jenny came on, she played pretty much the same set as last time, minus a few slower songs and with the order somewhat rejiggered. As such, I spent some time being one of those people taking pictures of everything she did; see further below.

I think the setlist was something like this:

See Fernando
The Charging Sky
You Are What You Love
Jack Killed Mom
Acid Tongue
Silver Lining
Carpetbagger
Big Wave
Rise Up with Fists!!
Handle with Care
The Next Messiah
Just Like Zeus
Born Secular

I'm not even going to try one for Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band. I have the last bunch of Bright Eyes records and the first Conor "solo" CD, but this band only plays stuff from that album and Outer South, their new record that I don't have (though this solo material is very much in the style of what Conor began "with" Bright Eyes on Cassadega). While I can't reconstruct a reasonable setlist, the band played for a long time so I think it's safe to say they played most of the songs on both of the non-Bright Eyes records. They definitely did everything that I really like so far: "Get-Well Cards," "Nikorette," and "I Don't Want to Die (In the Hospital)," so it's OK that they're not playing the likes of "If the Brakeman Turns My Way." I guess I should've seen Bright Eyes when Cassadega came out.

So should've some of this crowd, I think. After Jenny finished up, girls upon girls laid seige to our area in the front -- yes, Conor was attracting *more* girls to the front of a Jenny Lewis show -- so we high-tailed it out of there into the side-shade and sat for probably half of the set. But though Conor immediately attracted a ton of people, it seemed like he had some trouble hanging on to the full audience, maybe due to the lack of Bright Eyes tunes -- people were filtering out of the crowd all through the set, especially in the second half, double-especially before the encore. It may also be due to none of the Mystic Valley boys being as charismatic as J-Lew (although one of them is another Rilo Kiley member!) -- but the show was still pretty good. We were all just getting kind of sun-tired by the end, even after we moved into the shade.

Once the show ended, we walked up to Chinatown and eventually found someplace to serve us patriotic helpings of non-cookie Chinese food. Also, somewhere in there, after talking to Abby a bit about Connecticut-centric slang, I decided that we should start bringing back "blazin," which I was aware of but never had the chance to use myself (and, FYI, seems to mean "hot," not anything to do with weed; go figure).

Normally we can end of Fourth of July a few blocks from home, because our side of the East River has prime fireworks-viewing spots. But in light of some bullshit Hudson River ripoff, the NYC fireworks location bore a suspicious resemblance to the Nuje's fireworks, leaving us without a vantage point (REWIND THAT!) (sorry, that is near-involuntary at this point). So the six of us hit the Upper West post-Chinatown, and watched the fireworks from Riverside Park which I don't think I had actually visited before.

Then we walked some more. Then I came home and was so grateful to be sitting down that my body was willing to believe that it was no longer tired. Hence the post and Flickr futzing. All in all, as Marisa has said, a fifteen-hour epic.

In pictures, more at the click:

	User:	slightlyoffaxis
	Date:	2009-07-05 00:07
	Subject:	Gone, gone, from New York City--where you gonna go with a head that empty?
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	exhausted

This Fourth of July was EPIC. The day started at 8:30 am. I was out for around 15 hours and, if Katie's pedometer is correct, I walked about 7 miles. We covered ground from Battery Park to 72nd street. Here are some things that happened along the way:

*Revolutionaries paraded into Castle Clinton, and then cannons went off.

*There was a wild turkey in Battery Park. Internet research says her name is Zelda. The turkey settled in Battery Park because she got lost somewhere, wandered around aimlessly, and ended up in the park. Apparently, the same thing happened to Zelda Fitzgerald.

*Picnicking online for the Jenny/Conor show had its difficulties, but that didn't stop me from eating my weight in three different kinds of cookies.

*Beelined to the front for Jenny Lewis. Advantage: Super close. Disadvantage: Powerful sun. (Organic SPF 18 sunblock does nothing!) Not so cool: Almost exact same set as the show a month ago. Set highlight: "Handle with Care" with Conor.

*Moved into the shade for Conor Oberst. Advantage: Could spread out and sit down in the cool breeze. Disadvantage: Couldn't see him really behind the silly hat (which I was jealous of, since it had a wide, sun-blocking brim). Not so cool: No Bright Eyes songs, not even from Cassadaga. Set highlight: Super awesome rocking "I Don't Want to Die (In the Hospital).

*I think the ladies in our party were the only girls in the entire audience that didn't have tattoos. I saw a lot of people with tattoos behind their ears. Is that a new thing? There were also lots of interesting fashion choices. There's a fine line between wearing a pretty dress to a show and wearing a prom dress to a show.

*Walked to Chinatown for dinner. I'm always eating thematically inappropriate food on holidays. I have (non-Native American) Indian food on Thanksgiving, and, now, Chinese food on Independence Day.

*People on the West Side don't really understand what to do for fireworks. Nobody brought a portable radio to listen to the coordinating music. Left with a vacuum of noise, people tried singing patriotic songs, forgot all the words, and then dissolved into singing "Happy Birthday."

*Fireworks continue in my neighborhood. If Macy's takes their fireworks away, they'll make their own show, dammit. It sounds like the Revolutionary War is going on outside my window. I assume this will continue until August 4.

*I am tired.

	User:	cleolinda
	Date:	2009-07-03 10:47
	Subject:	In which an Edward finally approaches a Bella
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	anxious
	Music:	Aqualung - Strange And Beautiful (I'll Put A Spell On You)

I can sympathize with Galadriel a lot these days. We're both worried about the future, and if I had a Mirror to look into, I'd be peering into it half the day, probably. But the Mirror was stubbornly refusing to give her anything more specific than "a darkened room" and vague colors; even Lyra's alethiometer was refusing to give her anything but the same symbols over and over again. But she was ever more convinced that two needle-stops at "hourglass" had to mean death.

( NO! STOP IT! NO BABBLING! THAT IS ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY! OH MY GOD! )

	User:	cleolinda
	Date:	2009-07-02 11:01
	Subject:	A frequently asked question
	Security:	Public

Okay. I've been asked about performing and/or recording various Movies in Fifteen Minutes scripts before, and I've gotten three requests in the last two weeks alone, so I feel like I need to set this down where people can see it, and where I can link back to it when necessary.

I've had probably two dozen requests or more over the years, so this is something I've had to come up with a policy for, and this is it:

1) Don't sell your performance for profit. A school fundraiser-type talent show or something, I consider that charity; that's fine.

2) You can shorten the script as much as you need to. I would just ask that you not add significant amounts of your own material, because people then get confused as to who wrote what; I understand if you have to come up with a line or two in order to bridge a large gap caused by having to leave something out. You can change or leave out curse words, but please do not get creative with your alterations. If it says "Oh, shit!" and you want to say "Oh, crap!" instead, I understand that. Please do not, as one group wanted, substitute "Oh, poopy!"

3) You have to credit me. Please, you have to. I need this to be in print ("Written by Cleolinda Jones," "from the parody by Cleolinda Jones," "adapted from the parody by Cleolinda Jones," etc.) if there is a sign, marquee or program, and if not, I need it to be verbally acknowledged in some way. If it's a video, it ABSOLUTELY HAS TO be in the video in some way, like on a title card or in the credits, and not just linked in the YouTube description or something, because the video could be reposted without your knowledge. In fact, this has happened before.

Here's why I'm so uptight about this: I gave a group permission to perform and record "Phantom of the Opera in Fifteen Minutes." They did not clearly, explicitly credit me in the video or on the YouTube page (the YT page may not have even been theirs; someone might have taken their video and uploaded it, which is why the credit needs to be in the video). What happened then was, a girl claimed she had written the material for the video. She then "sold" "her" "script" to her younger cousin (for something like $12.47, if memory serves), who then wrote her own, very close version of it and posted it on fanfiction.net. When confronted by readers of mine who discovered this and reported her for plagiarism, the younger cousin was very angry and defensive, because in her mind, she "owned the rights" to the POTO/15M material. Because she had "bought" it... from someone who didn't actually own it or write it. If my name had been in that video, it would have been a lot harder for the girl to pull that shit. The way the whole thing went down, even considering that the cousin had been deceived, was extremely frustrating and insulting ("I've never run into anyone I had to ask to take something down who then turned around like, NUH-UH, IT'S MINE! I DO WHAT I WANT! I ALSO DEMAND AN APOLOGY!" Yes, this was the "you accusatory squirrel-like person" incident), as far as I'm concerned. I really do not want to go through that again.

So #3 is, basically, "Do whatever you have to do to make sure that people understand who wrote this material and it doesn't escape into the wild where people have no idea where it came from."


Any additional questions?

	User:	rockmarooned
	Date:	2009-07-02 11:53
	Subject:	When the police come to get me, I'm listening to dance music
	Security:	Public

This may be a product of my ongoing aging and general decline, but I've found an increasing needing to admit that I don't really get it and/or am annoyed by a lot of up-and-coming music. Sometimes this actually makes me feel OK, because it serves as a reminder that I do have some critical faculty left in regards to music, because for awhile I felt like I was having the same mildly positive low-key head-nodding reaction to every new band I heard. In other words, it's totally fine for me to not like Grizzly Bear or Phoenix that much because I already like Vampire Weekend and the Shins and Belle & Sebastian and I admit the new Animal Collective record has its charms and I even tried my hand at liking Beach House so I'm obviously well-versed enough in indie-kid cliche.

But sometimes it also makes me feel like a crabby old man, like when I find myself asking WTF is up with terrible faux-ironic dance music. This sort of came to a head while thinking about Rolling Stone's cover story on Lady Gaga. It's probably my fault for reading Rolling Stone, but where else can I get breathless updates on what Tom Petty might be doing? The gist of the article, as far as I can tell, is that what's important about Lady Gaga is (a.) how she dresses and, way way further down, (b.) some of the lyrics to some of the verses of some of her songs, because they're like, sort of subversive or something.

Take away the faux-self-aware stuff about losing your cell phone, and every Lady Gaga song I've heard sounds like a one-off dance hit that turns up on a bunch of compilations with a chick in a bikini on the cover. What exactly about "Just Dance" is much better than any number of terrible songs I don't even know the names of that were all over the radio for like two months, like that "days go by and still I think of you" song or that "gotta get through this" song or the dance version of that "finding it hard to believe we're in heaven" song? I admit that I've gained some enjoyment out of "Poker Face," mainly from Marisa's cousin Stacey singing it while making hilarious faces. But it's still from the "Womanizer" mode of production where you can't even write enough words to fill a chorus so you just stretchstretchstretchstretch stretch out what you haaaaave. Oh, but Lady Gaga wears big sunglasses and throws out an occasional, vague reference to the fact that most of the people who enjoy her music might be kind of stupid, so it's just like Madonna.

I thought of this again while Marisa was watching the Cobra Starship video for their song "featuring Leighton Meester," and I was immediately interested because TV starlets trying their delicate hands at singing careers is usually at least a little bit hilarious, and also because "Leighton Meester" is almost as fun to say/type as "Hayden Panettiere." But the song is kind of terrible and Cobra Starship is kind of terrible and it's probably not considered worth pointing out that Cobra Starship is terrible because they're just some kind of Fallout Boy-family band and they treat themselves as a joke so if you say they suck, you're falling for it or something. But they do really suck. Again, it's basically a song that sounds like any number of cheesy/awful club songs, but because the guy in the video mugs a lot while he's doing it, it's ironic and pure fun. Also, most of their schtick seems to consist of cutesy faux-ironic sloganeering that's secretly self-congratulatory (i.e., we are having an awesome time being awesome). So, sort of like the Hives, except with lame songs.

Basically, people should stop using bullshit aesthetics as an excuse to listen to lame dance music. At least legit lame dance music doesn't have the pretension of actually doing something else, like being fashion-forward or postfeminist, or being "more fun" than other crap post-teenybopper bands with little frame of reference beyond Blink-182.

Oh, yeah, also, I get the feeling that Blink-182 figured that since Green Day went and put out a couple of ultra-ambitious, mostly well-reviewed, and very popular CDs after many years of not garnering much attention, that all they, as an extremely poor man's Green Day, would have to do would come back -- not even make new music! -- and be greeted with a hero's welcome. And it's mostly worked: people report on Blink-182 getting back together like they're seminal or something. How is Weezer opening for them on their summer tour? Even in pure numbers, hasn't Weezer sold more records?

(Maybe don't tell me if that's not true.)

	User:	cleolinda
	Date:	2009-07-01 19:04
	Subject:	A bit of linkspam
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	tired
	Music:	Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard - Agent of Chaos

Been having a really hard time the last few days. Don't even really want to talk about it, although suffice it to say that it's not just me feeling pitiful, it's me actually trying not to get sucked into a number of different people's dramaz and not entirely succeeding. I'm trying to space the entries several days apart, but if The Secret Life of Dolls seems to move at a brisk pace over the next week or so, it's because I find working on that to be both comforting and distracting.

Linkspam--before we get into the grim stuff: ICE CREAM DEATHMATCH! If you'll excuse me, I have a container of Heavenly Hash I want to crawl into now.

( Three deaths to start out with )

	User:	slightlyoffaxis
	Date:	2009-07-01 20:46
	Subject:	I'm outta heeeere.
	Security:	Public

I just started re-watching The State for PopMatters. My sister and I were fanatics for The State when it was on—and then it just disappeared. If it had come out a few years later, web videos might have kept it alive, but because it was of its time my sister and I only had our memories and a million memorized quotes to rely on. When I started re-watching it, I was afraid it wouldn't hold up over time.

It totally does.

This makes me very happy, because I went from having zero access to it to owning all of it. And I want to dip my balls in it.

In addition to The State, I also saw some ( movies in June. )

This month, I also went to a midnight showing of The Great Muppet Caper, and I still giggle whenever I think of the face that Kermit and Fozzie make when they try to prove that they're twins.