Musical Whine

Don't you hate it when people label music?

When a certain music is labeled as a "girl" song because the artist happens to be avant garde and completely out there? Or when the music a band makes is "gay" because a few members of the band happen to be gay?

Or, what's even worse, when music seems to define exactly who you are?

To be honest, it makes no sense. According to some people, since I listen to Scissor Sisters and I enjoy that type of nu-disco/pop sound I absolutely, positively must be gay! Which is stupid. Since I listen to Tupac I must also be a gangster, right? I also listen to Cradle of Filth- does this make me a leather-wearing hardcore goth? I listen to some Japanese metal and I'm not a Japanese metalhead. I have friends who listen to the horrible Nicki Minaj and the untalented Katy Perry- that doesn't make them illiterate, tacky, vocally disabled, or a firework!

Somehow, people have gotten into their head that if you happen to be a part of some type of group, minority, etc, you must listen to a particular genre of music and if you don't, you're "weird"!

Why?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?

For Crying Out Loud, Why!!??!!??

Why do people do this? It's stupid on so many levels! I would understand teenagers and children buying into this kind of juvenile labeling (and to a degree, name-calling) but once you are at the end of the hormonal years and hit the beginning of the end of puberty this stupidity should stop! Seriously, I have grown adults telling me this shit, and it's annoying as hell!

Why should No Doubt be a "girl's band" just because Gwen Stefani happens to be the lead singer? Why does my little cousin continue to bemoan my liking of No Doubt, telling me that I should listen to Metallica and such, despite the fact that I listen to them more than he does?? Am I expected to stay in one genre of music based on my skin color and my choice of friends? Because if that were the case, I'd be listening to nothing but new school crap-rap, techno, and corridos. I detest new rap, and corridos! But if that's what we're basing it on...

And I know that certain groups listen to certain types of music, but how does that affect me?? Am I supposed to not listen to music I like because of stupid stereotypes? I listen to Jeffree Star- that doesn't make me a transvestite! I also like jazz- I don't go party at a motherfucking speakeasy, dammit! I listen to techno and house music and the last time I checked I'm not a Jersey Shore reject! I'm no fucking Oompa-Loompa!

Gosh! Doing this kind of shit is stupid!

I will forever remember that time when, as a high-school junior, I smacked my cousin for saying that "Underneath it All" was a "girl's song."

Too bad I can't just smack everyone who tells me that shit. It would make everything so much easier.

Free As My Hair, Fyi. (Noveling Pt. 2)

As I write this, I am listening to Lady Gaga's new CD, Born This Way. You should all listen to this album. But, before I go down that alley, I am not writing about Lady Gaga or her album. Just stating the fact that I'm listening to her.

In fact, I'm pretty much blogging about nothing. (This is one of those blog posts where I just ramble about random-er shit than usual.)

So recently, I've been writing about writing. That has been going well (the actual writing, not that writing about writing, because that truly does nothing) and I've been world building and world building, brick, brick, brick. I've found a way to finally write, since just writing the bare skeleton of something does nothing, since I have to go back and completely finish at the end, instead of going straight to the editing. I've come up with my style based on a stream-of-conciousness meets third-person omniscient.

That sounds weird, doesn't it?

(Note: I am now listening to "Deceptacon" by Le Tigre.)

It does sound weird. I'm sure it's been done (although it would be cool if it hasn't, but let's be real) but I like it- it's very liberating. I just have to balance the the conscious stream of the character whilst actually telling the story and describing enough so it makes sense.

I alternate between doing that, plot building, world building, and watching episodes of Charmed.

Also, I am now reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman, which is awesome. It doesn't have that dark tone of "American Gods" that I was wishing for, but it doesn't need it! It's a great story!

(Note 2: Listening to "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails.)

Stardust is awesome. It's going on the list of books I will force my friends to read before I die. So far I only have like two (American Gods, JPod) but the list will grow this summer! Ahahaha!

I'm also doing a shitload of research on folklore and mythology since I need to create stuff from scratch and tie into other stuff I already have. So I'm learning a lot! Like did you know, there are so many equivalents to King Arthur's Excalibur that it's not even special any more! Okay, it's still special, but I did not know there were so many people that built folklore around swords!

(Note 3: Listening to "Imagine" by John Lennon, now.)

I'm also making myself go through various crash courses from different mythologies and pantheons, scouring and squeezing out ideas into a small little pile and then working miracles. I think I'm making this from scratch, and it's not so much fun.

It's tedious.

But I enjoy it.

Why? 'Cause I'm a masochist.

:)

Noveling Pt. 1

Ugh.

This is all I can say.

For the past four months or so that I've been in session, any type of creative writing I have done has been in play-form. It has been thought of, executed, perfected, and then re-written in theatrical style. Ignoring the theatre-formula all plays are written in, as a writer (or at least for me) you have to force yourself to think in theatrical way: anything you do must absolutely work on stage. Every action, every word, every little nuance must be performable and doable by an actor performing your work.

It was a harsh and annoying change.

However, it was a change I adapted wholeheartedly to. I changed my creative style and thinking to suit the needs of the theatrical, of which I did a pretty good job, in my not-so humble opinion. I actually like writing in that manner, thinking of how an actor would execute a character's action or movement.

But now, having been freed from school, I have a problem. A huge one. A problem of monumental proportions, that I, in my nineteen years of existence, have ever run across.

How the hell to I change back?

Very recently, my muses paid me a surprise visit, bitch-slapping me with the force of a thousand ideas and I wrote like a man possessed. I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote, researching and meticulously creating this new world I was going to play in, and then, when it came to actually executing the action, making everything happen, pulling out my miracle bag and throwing it in there, I look over to my work and... it sucks.

And it's not the idea itself. At least I hope to the goddess it isn't the idea.

It's the writing. I read over what was supposed to be my first chapter of this new and shiny work I came up with and it reads like a badly written script! I did what I could, but I realized- it's not the writing itself. The writing could work as a script it I adapted it to the proper formula. Idea as a script could totally work.

The problem is that the work is, in fact, not a script. It is a novel, and I would like it to stay that way, thank-you-very-much!

I don't know how to switch from playwright-style to novelist-style! This is not in my handbook! In fact, I don't have a handbook! They never gave me one! I just don't know what to do! I know, it's all me and I should be able to do something, but I can't! It just doesn't work. Apparently I have two modes now, playwright and poet, and neither are interested cooperating with me. What do you do when you're own creative instinct is working against you? Is it supposed to do that? And it's not like I could grab a bat and beat it into submission (although I wish I could!) and just... ugh!

There should be some type of marker for this. This is self-help book moment, dammit! I need help!

*Sigh*

I'm hoping that with enough writing it'll go away, but I don't know...

Anyway, I'm going back to the old grindstone. Only in this case, it's a pen and it's stabbing the fuck out of me.

A Series of Unfortunate Names

Why is it that politicians always have unfortunate names?

I mean, look at Anthony Wiener. I know it's immature, but seriously, school must have been horrible for him! (Mildly amusing to outright hilarious for everyone else, though.) To be honest, I don't actively follow politics, since it's all fucking stupid and just depresses me. Thus, I keep in touch with the asinine world of politics through the Facebook wall of a really good friend of mine. (You know who you are. :P)

And I swear, the things I find out about (through my friend's Facebook wall), are fucking disgusting.

Like Ryan Fattman's (Another unfortunate name, yet I refuse to feel sorry for the little shit) stance advocating rape. Read the proof that stupidity should be punished here. This dumb-ass mother-fucker. Basically, his belief is that undocumented women should be afraid of reporting any type of abuse, be it physical, sexual or mental, for the sole reason that they are in this country illegally.

Way to shit all over basic human rights, Fattman. While you're at it, you might want to purchase a nice blood diamond? Maybe a shirt made by a three-year-old child laborer in China? They'd go great along with the huge hole where your human decency should be.

This is not even an issue concerning illegal immigration, I mean, not really. This is just Fattman's thinly veiled contempt for women seeking a target, that sick little misogynist. What he's really saying is that if you're going to do something sick and illegal (rape, murder, physical attack) do it to someone who is illegal, 'cause they can't say anything. Talk about scapegoating; I wonder, is this what Hitler said about the Jews during the WWII era? Seriously, who the fuck says that? Every women should be able to seek help from law officials in the face of any type of abuse, regardless of their immigration status. Idiots like Fattman make the human race look bad.

So back to unfortunate names, and Anthony Wiener, isn't his scandal terrible ironic? This whole thing over semi-covered pictures of his dick and his name being Wiener? I know! I know! So immature! I'm a horrible, immature person- but it's hilarious! The irony is down right hilarious! Excluding his questionable morality (Dude, a seventeen-year-old, really?) this whole thing, what I hear of it, anyway, is totally hilarious.

This brings me to Rick Santorum.

This one maybe the worst of the lot, to be honest. And it's not what his name is, but what Dan Savage turned his name into. His name means literally, in slang terms, shit-mix.

Let me elaborate.

Rick Santorum is homophobic and therefore extremely anti-gay, saying that sexual acts between people who happen to be of the same-sex "undermine the basic tenets of [his] society and the family." He said that homosexuals don't have the Constitutional right to privacy with respect to their sexual practices, and they should be regulated just like child molesters and zoophiles are.

(Random Fact: Did you know that Bestiality wasn't illegal in Washington up until 2006? See: Kenneth Pinyan.)

Anyway, in response to the stupid, annoying pseudo-morality spewed by Santorum, columnist Dan Savage started this campaign to come up with a new meaning for "santorum" in opposition to Rick's stupid comments. So thus, a new meaning for "santorum" was born. It is now: "the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex."

Using it in a sentence: "There's santorum on the condom! Ew!"

Personally, I find it hilarious! (I'm using the word "Hilarious" way to much.)

(Random Fact #2: Dan Savage also coined the term "pegging.")

It must suck to be a politician with an unfortunate name. Sometimes your parents are at fault (Wiener, I'm looking at you) other times, you bring upon your own dumb-ass self (Santorum.)

Regardless, it is hilariously entertaining to make fun of them.

P.S: Sorry about not blogging for like a year, then bringing you politics (even worse-republicans.) Next time will be something pop culture-y (Lady Gaga!) or something about me!

:)

"I've Eaten More Queens than Lancelot!"

When I grow up, I want to be an Italian mobster.

What? My middle school always told me I could be whatever I wanted to be.

True, they probably didn't have this in mind...

...and yes, I'm not Italian... but whatever!

Recently, I've been renting and watching a lot of "The Sopranos." I'm barely on volume two of the first season, but it's turning out to be very entertaining. It's burned a hole through the vampire-magic-mystery stuff I usually watch, which has been very, very enlightening. Not to mention, for a very forward idea, it is extremely subtle.

For example, in the first season, there's this episode where Carmela Soprano and the Priest are both alone in the house. It gets very psychological; exploring Carmela's distance from her Mob Boss husband and her regret, guilt and repentance over said husband's job, whilst simultaneously showing her and the priest's mutual attraction. Then, instead of acting on that passion and unresolved sexual tension, the priest decides to have her confess and then gives her communion.

People, that is the most sexually charged communion I have ever seen, off or on screen. (Although, off screen, a sexually charged communion would be pretty goddamn awkward.) Not to mention, the whole communion deal was a thinly disguised metaphor for sex. I have to give the writers their fucking props... it was so fucking interesting, not to mention ironic, that they would give such a holy aspect that edge of sex and attraction. Shit, the church should be getting pissed over this, instead of "Judas."

-> Yes, I know, this show is old, but I don't remember anything being said over it, while the church gets all bitchy over Lady Gaga acting out a scene from the bible (not offending anyone) this got away? Really, now.

But truthfully, this show is fucking awesome. It lacks that random sex that every other HBO television show has. You know, those random sex scenes that exist in every fucking episode and have absolutely no point? Like:

Janie: Omg, my grandma died!

Danny: She did?

*Hugs*

Danny: That sucks.

Janie: You want to have sex now?

---Cue ten minutes of softcore porn---

Seriously. True Blood, anyone? Sookie and Bill sleep together the day her grandmother dies. I'm sorry, that's just fucking tacky.

But "The Sopranos" lacks this (or at least it isn't as tacky) and it does the show a fucking service. Because it is fucking awesome. "The Sopranos" is what new TV should try to be! None of this fucking Jersey Shore, reality TV shit.

Reality TV is killing pop culture.

Speaking of the death of Pop Culture, tomorrow is Friday!!

-Friday, Friday, Gotta get down on Friday! Don't forget people! Before Friday, comes Thursday, Then comes Friday, Then Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards!-

Someone has to help that bitch find a seat. Seriously.

If I could upload audio, I would add a snippet of me singing that atrocity. I would say butchering it, but it does a pretty good job of butchering itself- it does not need my help. In fact, I think my singing would make it better, and that's saying something!

On other news, I'm going to Little Tokyo tomorrow. I'm looking forward to cheap Pocky. And, I'm impatiently awaiting the Judas video, coming out sometime soon. For some reason I cannot find a set date for it. But i'm waiting, nonetheless. Also: check out my post on Lady Gaga- I did not get a chance to shamelessly promote it anywhere. Once again, let me know of you know every artist I mention in it. Click Here.

Speaking of impatiently waiting, I'm also waiting for Keys' newest mixtape to drop (Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves), since she is now my favorite female rapper. For those who don't know, Keys The Problem is that rapper from Baltimore who famously dissed Nicki Minaj for her idiotic "barbie" image and stupid ass elementary-school rhymes. She's fucking awesome. (I provided the link, btw.) I've been consoling myself by listening to her first mixtape and the Roman's Revenge remix she made with A. Tamaris - both which are really good. Also, for those of you who like JStar, listen to "I Hate Music." It's the B-Side to "Heart Surgery (Isn't That Bad)"

Okay, before I go I log off, my song of the week (because I actually have time to think of one today) is Judas (big surprise) for the sole reason that I really like the beat during the bridge. That, and I'm waiting for the music video. If you have not listened to it, you should. It's so industrial.

With that, my possibly non-existent readers, I take my leave.

(You guys should show me that you do exist, and comment.)

:D

The Fame Monster

Okay, I know that I haven't blogged in a while and then to have my most recent post be about Lady Gaga... hmmm...

I was about to apologize. But then I realized I don't give a shit. Get over it or stop reading.

Anyway, back to Lady Gaga. People are bitching and moaning about her new sound being too industrial and too much like techno and they wish she could return to "The Fame" style of music.

Did anyone see anything wrong with that sentence? They wish she could return to "The Fame" style of music. Anyanka, get 'em.

(If anyone gets that reference, please tell me. It would be refreshing to know that pop culture isn't completely dead.)

Why the fuck would you want Lady Gaga to return to "The Fame"? In my not-so-humble opinion, "The Fame" was her worst album! Not to say it was bad, just compared with "The Fame Monster" and what we've heard from "Born This Way" it just doesn't compete. It annoys me when people say they want "the old Gaga back." I'm really not sure why people would want her to stay in that on little hole for the rest of her career! She's an innovator- she's breathed life into the pop game and wanting her to stay in that one little niche is like telling her to start selling canned music and stay exactly the same forever. I'm sorry, that would get fucking boring as hell. If she had stayed and continued with those ideals, the same people bitching now will bitch about her lack of creativity and such.

Me? Personally, I loved "Born This Way" and "Judas." The meanings behind those songs, and the sounds, really emphasize the overall theme of freedom, the theme that we're expecting for the album.

Also, on the cover: Get the fuck over it. It's fucking hilarious and memorable. Why would you want it "more elaborate"? Do you want her dressed like a gazelle? Did you want her with glitter and vomit down the majority of her outfit? Blueberry boobs? Whips and chains? Butcher knives and black vinyl stilettos? Speaking with a British accent? Wearing a tacky, ghetto version of her "LoveGame" video costumes? What! Gosh...

(Also, if someone can name all the artists I just referenced... that would be awesome. LOL)

Okay, I'm gone.

I'll try to blog later. : )

Thou Shalt Not

Oh my fucking gosh. I have not blogged in ages! Literally, since the month of February (and if I had waited until tomorrow, the month of March, too.)

Well not much has happened. I've had class and homework. I finished midterms the other day, in which I did pretty decently: an A and a B on the World Lit take home and in-class essays, respectively, most likely a C in Anthropology (crossing fingers), not-a-fail in math, and hopefully-not-a-fail in Bible as Literature. Yup. My grades are slipping- I need to keep up, before I get buried in the inevitable avalanche.

On the bright side, however, I finished the first, albeit painful, draft of my play. (Applause may commence.)

Today, it is a holiday- Cesar Chavez Day. I was not aware this was a school-recognized holiday, since I was trapped in year-round hell for twelve years before college, and it is a nice experience. I did not have to read, I did not have to write, I did not have to think! Which truthfully, to me, who tends to over-think issues in general, is a tremendous relief. Everything has just been so mentally exhausting that it's nice to have a break. I look forward to spending the rest of the day staring absent-mindedly at my computer screen watching old episodes of Roseanne, The Nanny, or random anime from my childhood. Nothing like mind-numbing tv shows to emphasize the act of doing absolutely nothing.

I've also been catching up with my circle of friends, whom I have neglected during my reign as Hermit of L.A. To be honest, some friends were busy with their own stuff. For example, I had two friends acting in a play (one killed herself, the other was a total bitch), I've had two looking for work/new place to live, and I had my bestie at a prestigious ivy league school working her heart out. I hadn't talked to her in weeks!

Which reminds me: Is it weird that, as friends, we have rules we cannot break? For example, I cannot become a Vegan (It's already bad that I'm a vegetarian) and she cannot become a Christian (not that she ever would). Is that weird? 'Cause truthfully, it makes sense to us.

But to be honest, we are pretty insane, so forget I asked.

Anyway, just this quick recap. I have stuff to do. Like veg out in front of my computer screen.

:D