Another day, another obsession, another challenge, or: go watch Awake

Life presses on.  Unfortunately tonight I don't offer much in terms of cohesion: I always feel as if I'm abusing my power as a writer when I publish these disjointed and subheading-laden posts, but I fear that the cocktail that is a mixture of the itch to write something with a bunch of semi-topics floating around in my head (all pressing enough to be written though not significant enough to stand alone) proves to be a little bit too toxic for me and my creative standstill to handle.  My antidote, then, is this: voila.  (besides, I think this lets me get lighthearted and silly if I intend for these little snippets of my borderline obsessive-compulsive - though always illuminatingly charming - thought process to exist on the basis of humour, anyways)


It has happened.

My obsession with this girl is so, so far gone.  In fact, scroll down the main page of my blog and you'll see not one but two images of the beauty (two out of three, if you count Madonna's endless tripping.  Silly, silly Madonna), and here's a third.  Rejoice!

I'm still very aware that Lana Del Rey has an extremely polarizing effect: you will love her voice, or you will hate it; you will love her songs, or you will hate them; you will see her as a travesty live, or you will see her as refreshing.  (I'll say that I think she's got some work to do when singing live but I won't hold some inexperience and nerves against her) Yeah, yeah, I drone on about her.  She's commandeered my iTunes, especially now that I've downloaded demos and unreleased songs and her first unofficial and unreleased full length album on top of Born to Die which was only released a month ago.  Point is, she's my new it when it comes to music; suffice to say I got myself a little bit sick of Lady Gaga and the obsession I've had for her - still love her, not to worry - but as she's faded from the forefront for now and her music's grown really stale for me (BTW, unfortunately, does not have a lasting effect, and I'm patiently waiting for what's next), I desperately needed something else.  Now I've gone and went gaga over another.

An update from the land of television

Speaking of things I've let get a hold on me this year: my love for television, the love that gets me through my single, free-time ridden nights here holed up in my room on residence.  (doesn't help I've gone into the deep end when it comes to torrents, and they are now my entire existence) The Walking Dead's latest offing had me staring at shock upon my computer screen, and though I blame Twitter's trending topics for spoiling the massive character for me minutes before I started my video, I was still taken aback by the violent manner of this character's end as well as feeling slightly affected (although I didn't like them at all) by the brutal emotion from the rest of the cast of characters as they came across the devastation.  Well done, cast.  As for Smash, I'm coming off of an emotionally charged episode aired only tonight with a sizable shocker in its final minutes, and I'd really implore anyone with an inkling of interest in Broadway (and I don't even mean you need to love it; just a flare for the performance) to watch it, because the performances are incredible and I'm impressed at the quality of writing for an NBC show.  On a related note: stop what you are doing right now and watch Awake.  If you haven't heard of it, it only just premiered on Thursday, and the basic concept is a man, after getting in a car accident with his wife and son, experiences two separate realities on an alternating daily basis where out of his wife and son one is alive and the other is dead, and vice versa.  The mystery of the show is the thinking that: is one a dream?  Are both real?  Neither?  The psychology is interesting, as is the fact that the two cases the protagonist works - he's a cop with two different partners depending on the "world" - begin to overlap with each other.  Quality at its finest, I promise you.  Finally, working off of "quality," I recently watched the Canadian miniseries Bomb Girls on suggestion from a friend, six episodes dealing with the women workers of a bomb factory during World War II.  Great television, especially for a Canadian production: I'd wager that, in recent memory, I have not adhered to characters as quickly as I did with this series - specifically a tomboyish worker and her growing attachment to another, a meek runaway - and the finale is heartbreaking.  Interesting on the historical side and compelling in terms of the drama.

But go watch Awake.  Now.  If it means not reading on, so be it - I've already got your page visits. ;)

A personal challenge

You may think to yourself that, damn, I must have a ton of free time on my hands to watch as much television as I do (all of the aforementioned plus many more), and you'd be right.  In the final haul of the semester, I only have three essays to turn in - the first, I've finished; the second has an alternative creative assignment option I might take heed of; the third is based on Watchmen, so let's all laugh out loud at the ease this will pose for me - and just two final tests in the last week, both in film classes which knock on wood aren't a grand challenge for me.  And so, with all this free time: I'm sure you recall my venture into the world of fiction once again with my attempt at NaNoWriMo this past November, so I thought to myself, "why not make things full circle and do it again for the final third of my semester?"  It's true that my November was relatively stress-free regardless of the sheer amount of work I had to do, but I attribute that entirely to having a creative outlet.  I recently reread what I managed in November and I've decided I've fallen out of love with my concept; and yet, reading the words made me yearn for that output once more.  This brings us to now, as I sit on top of a solid concept with an actual direction this time as well as a brief 3000 words under my belt.  Naturally, there's no time constraint this time, which I think might encourage my ongoing writing past the close of my semester.


Tis my life.  I eat a lot of cafeteria food because of the amount of money left on my meal plan, and I cackle in my room at the anomalies of my life with my trusted fellow assholes a swift text message away, beer in hand optional.  Oh, and Lana's probably playing.  She is now.

Operation Tweet Me Back: Part Deux

I'll begin with a semi-relevant but mostly-irrelevant preface: the past few days I've developed a sort of sadness, if you will.  I don't know why I've been feeling so gloomy lately, and yet I know why entirely: I think my life at the very moment is a bit of a toxic cocktail of stress with school and frustration with individuals and a general homesickness - boohoo - but I write this now in the comfort of my home sitting across the couch from my mom and my mood is already two thousand times better.  All that proves is that my residence has become a hotbed for absolute frustration with my situation, but that's neither here nor there; too personal of a topic to explain and too lowbrow of me to even speak further.  Point is, I've found that the general misfortunes of my life have been building upon one another as if like evil bricks constructing an ugly and mean wall of depressed! in my life, and on top of being away from home, I've just become miserable.  I'm glad that I have a weekend at home until Monday morning (save for a trip back to campus for my residence don interview - ahh!) to clear my head before returning to another week of school to soldier through the few academic obstacles I have ahead of me until next week's reading week.  Like I said, I felt an instant happiness even the moment I opened my front door to see my mom standing there ready to bring me back to the bubble, and I have a night out to see The Woman in Black with a friend in a few hours (lord help me) as well as a family function tomorrow so I'm just happy.

Yet, in my stewing of unhappiness this week - a week that included a twenty-four hour stomach flu which exhausted me of all energy I had on Wednesday (I also decided to watch Melancholia that day.  Really beautiful film, but messed up - I've digressed on a digression) - I cooked up another pick-me-up plan I'm going to put in motion for myself.  Round two of my official Twitter mission for a shout-out from a celebrity!  Who?  Hold on for another paragraph or two.

Recall: I've done this before.  And, yes, I was successful - twice.  I've exhausted my feelings on this so I'll gloss over it in just a few sentences, but I was somewhat disappointed with the arrogance I received in response.  Yes, I know, I'm just a nobody who's hounding someone on television for something as trivial as a "hello!" but it's a little disheartening still to be answered with snark, so I'm not overly happy with she-who-must-not-be-named who, I'm sure, will have a highly successful career now that she won't be returning for the second season of AHS and will forever just be the pair of tits on legs.  Good luck, honey.

Otherwise, I've received not one but four whole tweets from comedienne Retta who has a starring role on my favourite TV comedy (and show overall) Parks & Recreation as Donna, the Parks & Rec employee who loves her Mercedes so much and laments about her brother Lavondrias or about the endless line of men she has entertaining "just waiting in the car outside."  She's hilarious, and she's gracious with responding to her fans, so on two occasions I've been responded to for offering (what I thought to be) funny tweets in her direction which have been well received.  Doesn't hurt that she's as funny as Donna in real life.

And so, my Operation Tweet Me Back target is... well, take a guess.

No, I'm not attempting to be the one person out of nineteen million who Lady Gaga will answer one sunny afternoon - hell no.  That's foolish, and honestly, my body is unprepared for what would happen if she ever answered me.  I feel like all of my organs would collapse in unison and my parents will have to hold a funeral for me as soon as possible.  No, instead, I'd love an "X" - and that's what [she] tweets to her fans (often), just "X" for kisses - from Lana Del Rey.

I really like this picture.  I don't really like the words I can't read.

There's no need for me to go over how trivial this is again as I did last time, nor do I have to reiterate how this may be considered creepy on my end, but what can you do.  Yes, I'll fully say that I'm a petty lowly regular Joe that a tweet from Lana Del Rey would give me an infinite amount of smiles to come - like I've said, it's trivial, but I don't care.  That's what I like most about Twitter, I think: the possibility that celebrities have the capacity to type a matter of just one hundred and forty characters to make someone who adores their artistry on top of the world, so as a child of the Internet and as an active Twitter user (and follower of celebrities, ranging from the cast of Parks and Cougar Town and SNL to Mother Monster and Lana Del Rey herself) I might as well capitalize on the possibility that maybe, if I tweet sparingly and as clever as I always do, I might just get that snippet of well wishes to make me gloat about it for who knows how long.  Why Lana?  Flavour of the month.  That makes my fandom for her sound fleeting, but I mean it in the sense that in a time where a lot of the mainstream music is less than thrilling to me - and that Gaga is inbetween albums currently and Born This Way is really stale to me now - she's all I've been listening to for, literally, the past month.  In watching videos of her interacting with fans, I've seen a truly genuine side that makes me melt, so at least I know this time when if I get that response, it wouldn't be riddled with sarcasm.

Anyways, again, this is just lighthearted.  The creepiness of this - I could see it, a bit - only comes out of the fact that I've written this for the purpose of my blog, but I'm good with being a parody of myself for the sake of a good read.  After all, I don't publicize the times I've tweeted Courteney Cox and Busy Phillips or Gaga for the hell of it.  So, again, have a laugh, I don't mind!  That is, after all, the purpose of my blog.  And the moment it's unfunny is the moment I should be removed from existence on this earth.

We'll see!

The Lana Del Rey Conundrum

If you've never heard of Lana Del Rey before this very sentence, you've probably been under a bit of a rock - and no, I don't mean that in the sense that she's so famous you surely must've heard of her.  If anything, really, she might be infamous following her recent turnout on Saturday Night Live, and therein lies my meaning behind my certainty you've probably at least heard her name in passing since the January 14 episode hosted by Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe.  You may never have heard her open her mouth whatsoever, but you might have heard about the trainwreck that was her two performances.

I feel it right to say, I'm a fan of hers.  She caught my attention as her song Video Games kept popping up on year-end lists covering the best-of 2011 music.  Interestingly, the day I typed Video Games into the Youtube search bar was the day that her first professional music video for her second officially released single, Born to Die, was released, and as I absorbed the slow melodic sounds of the former song I was stared down by the apathetic glare coupled with dark and pronounced lips that were Lana Del Rey's face on the banner for the new video.  A click away and I found myself watching the five minute long clip, and by the time it drew to a close I found myself compelled to play it again, and before I realized it completely I'd listened to the song (watching grew tiresome after a couple views even though the video is visually stunning) a good five or six times.  I was eager to hear more and I was greeted with a large amount of old demos on Youtube; I reserved myself to only listening to the songs which were to be included on her debut album, Born to Die, due out on the 30th of January but is somehow already playing on repeat on my iTunes.  (the only other songs being Blue Jeans, Diet Mtn Dew [which received a heavy hip-hop makeover for its final version and which consequently has become a favourite] and Off to the Races, my favourite by miles) I suppose it's largely due to my music library growing stale - yeah, Gaga has a great replay value, but Born This Way has really become mundane for me to listen to, save for the select standouts - but I was somewhat enthralled with Lana Del Rey.  Now, being a reader who's never heard of her, potentially, it's at least my duty to explain to you her sound, but as my backspace button can attest to this fact I've struggled to sum her up.  Pop music, sure, in the loosest of senses, borderline the elusive 'alternative' mantle that I label nearly half of my library as for lack of a better term; her voice is extremely unique, smooth and somewhat like Nancy Sinatra, a singer whom she's been professionally compared to.  Her songs are of the slower nature, melodic and hypnotizing, but now having heard the full album I'll say the split between slow love-like songs and, shockingly, pseudo-rap songs with boisterous beats is even.

Returning to her SNL performances: I was not a fan; anything but.  I was excited for her first televised performances, happy that such a talent was given such a platform for a large splash of an introduction.  The chimes of Video Games started off after Daniel Radcliffe's intro and the spotlights came upon her figure, clad in a gown preserving her pinup bombshell-like image.  (Christ, I don't know!  Just go with it)  Lord, though, she did not sing well live.  Her voice wavered and went flat, changing pitch throughout the song at cringeworthy moments.  Blue Jeans, her second performance, was no better, and safe to say I was glad she left Born to Die untouched by her live performance, or else I wouldn't be able to return to that song with the love I have for it now.  I understand her poor performances to be to nerves, and I feel for her: during the cast goodbyes you can see Seth Meyers hug a downtrodden Lana and read his lips which clearly say, "it wasn't that bad."  The backlash was somewhat painful to witness: for a debut performance, she was panned, and as an avid Twitter user (follow me!) I witnessed brutal trending topics burning her performances rise to the top of the most popular trends in the world.  Reviews since have been anything but glowing, and I feel bad that they've served as a large blow to the anticipation for her new album - if to prove anything, I had come across an article touting her as "2012's Adele," but I'm afraid (for now) she'll have to do a lot to overcome the public's negative outlook on her.  I admit I was a heavy critic after her performances, largely due to my sheer disappointment; I'll also admit that probably, because of the likes of Gaga or Adele, the precedence for live performance has risen once again from the likes of lip-synching Britney, and no longer does it cut it to be just a recording artist: you need to be a singer.  In that sense, it was upsetting to know the voice I grew to love wasn't a live one.

And yet, her debut album is flawless.  (yes, it leaked early this morning, and no, I do not have the willpower to resist listening to it for another week) I can say that there is no weak link to the tracklisting as every song is, in its way, a perfect standout.  Her voice seems flawless, but I beg the question: how much of it is genuine?  All the same, I'm enjoying her music immensely: from Dark Fantasy to Lolita or from the new hip-hop Diet Mtn Dew (..I'm thinking it's my favourite) to This Is What Makes Us Girls to the title track or her fame-maker Video Games, I can't pick the sole standout, which I suppose serves as a testament to the overall strength of Born to Die as a whole.

I entirely realize that her voice is so unique that she's very polarizing: that is, you'll completely love her music and sound, or you'll find yourself unable to get into it.  There's no grey area there, and I wouldn't expect there to be - there isn't one for Lady Gaga, either - because her sound is so defined that you'll either adhere to it like glue or repel it like a magnet.  She's certainly an acquired taste.  That being said, my disappointment in her Saturday Night Live appearance is that she's turned off everyone from her completely.  Here's what I mean: given that she's a very love/hate sort of act, I would never expect SNL's target audience to lap up her performances.  However, had they been solid, she would've garnered respect; I hate to keep bringing it back to Gaga, but I know of many, many people who dislike her music and/or image but straight up respect her because of her powerful voice when singing live.  In that respect, Lana Del Rey has missed that completely: not only did she appear to be that weird girl with an offbeat voice and strange song, but she missed the vocal mark completely, pitchy and shaky and painful to listen to.

It's a difficult concept for me to comprehend, but I'll have to understand her as a recording artist.  She's at the point in her career where the live performances are at a minimum, and my liking of her is low enough that I don't follow her like a hawk so my exposure to her (potential) live missteps will be at zero.  I can only hope with time her voice will become better when singing live, but even still with SNL I fully realize it was probably entirely due to nerves: after all, I can't even imagine having my first televised performance to millions to occur on Saturday Night Live which makes the concept of 'live' as live as possible.  And yet, reversing everything I've just spelled out, I heard a recent performance of Born to Die which sounded ten times better than her recorded version.

I'm in a constant state of confusion with this girl.  She's drop dead gorgeous, so there's definitely that.  For now, I'll reserve myself to enjoying her album as immensely as I have been - I've lost count on the repeats.  I highly suggest her, at least to try: there's a massive, massive chance you'll dislike her, perhaps even hate her, but I'll say if you like her, you'll have a lot to like.