Ranjit and Chad

Y’know, watching commercials you don’t see a very many people of Indian decent.  Actually, you really still don’t see many non-white people in commercials.  And this is how you choose to portray them?  Frankly, I get mad whenever I see them.  I’m sure these commercials are insulting to the majority of people of Indian decent who have to watch them.  I really can’t believe that MetroPCS is getting away with this kind of advertising strategy.

Adam Sessler: Professional Nerd

Well, earlier today I saw a blog post about a video that Adam Sessler made as a part of his “Sessler’s Soapbox” series.  It’s titled “Stop Being a Dick” and it’s about a very serious problem in online gaming: Bullying.  In the video he says that his message is a direct response to the stories in the news about gay kids killing themselves and he offers words of encouragement to them and anyone else who gets picked on or bullied in school or on the internet.  He also sends messages to the cyber-bullies out there that their behavior is totally unacceptable.  He says that it’s important for those of us who are witness to bullying, online or otherwise, to speak up against it because the only way to solve the problem is to let those who are doing it know that it is one.

Like I said, I haven’t watched X-Play in a really long time, but Adam Sessler is still awesome.  It’s great to see straight guys speak out against bullying, especially ones who have been bullied themselves.  Internet bullying is a serious issue and it’s gotten so out of control, but the majority of us who are decent people need to let these bullies know that it is not okay.

You can check out Adam’s video here:

http://g4tv.com/videos/49247/Sesslers-Soapbox-Stop-Being-a-Dick/

I’m currently working on a video for the “It Gets Better Project,” and I plan to film it as soon as I have time to (it’s midterm season right now).  I think it’s really great to see so many people stand up and say enough is enough.  This ignorant bullying will no longer be tolerated.  As Howard Beale would say, “We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take this anymore.”

Being a teenager is hard.  Really hard.  And when it sucks, it really sucks.  That’s why it’s so importants for adults to send the message that it’s okay to be who you are because there are people out there who will understand you and care about you and want you to succeed in life.  When I was fifteen I was really miserable.  I felt like no one would ever understand the things I was going through and that I wasn’t going to amount to anything in my life, but I was so wrong.  I have the greatest friends I could ever hope for – and I didn’t have to change who I am because they like who I am.  They like my weird, awkward, nerdiness and my dorky sense of humor.  There are so many kinds of people out there and the world is big enough for all of them.  It’s so important to hold on and not give up because things really do get better.

Here’s the link to the “It Gets Better” Youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/itgetsbetterproject#p/f

It’s a great project.

And when I make my video I’ll be posting on the blog.  It might be a few days, so stay tuned!

The suits...

Gah!

:)

Love.

Okay, I’m done now.

Apparently another film version of Oscar Wilde’s book “The Picture of Dorian Gray” came out last year.  Ben Barnes, of Prince Caspian fame, played Dorian, and Colin Firth also starred as Lord Henry Wotton.  I found the whole thing on Youtube and watched it last night.

I’ve officially decided that I do not wish to see any more film adaptations of this book.

I don’t think that every film adaptation of a book is trash.  A lot of them are really good.  But I think that when you have a story that purposefully leaves important parts of the story to the reader’s imagination, it doesn’t help when the director decides to show it to you.  It’d be like someone telling you what aweful, terrible thing is in that pit Edgar Allen Poe was talking about.  The whole point of the story is that it’s left to your imagination.

What did Dorian Gray do to ruin the reputations of fine, victorian ladies and gentlemen?  Well, according to the film he was into some really freeeeeaky stuff.  Like, some seriously fucked up shit.  There are orgy scenes and weird S&M stuff going on and it’s kind of disturbing.  And I get that that’s the point - Dorian gives in to his excesses and this jeapordizes his immortal soul and everything – but I still think it’s best if you don’t show us everything. 

When books are turned into film I get pretty bummed out when they omit things.  But I actually get angry when they add things in that weren’t there.  The scene between Dorian and artist Basil Hallward for instance is one of those times.  Now, there’s a lot of gay subtext in this book.  So much so, in fact, that exerpts from “Dorian Gray” were used at Oscar Wilde’s trial to have him sentenced to two years hard labor for indecency.  It’s not hard to see that Basil - and even Henry – is in love with Dorian.  But I don’t think as a director you have to show Dorian reciprocating this affection with implied sex.  That’s just making subtext into actual text.

But, if you still wanted to elaborate on Basil and Dorian’s relationship - and it is an interesting and complex one – they could have done it much better than they did.  In the book it’s made pretty clear that Basil is in love with Dorian.  In the original unedited version he even states it outright to Henry.  Over the course of the story we see Basil, sick with unrequited love, having to witness his object of affection undergo a hideous transformation.  Dorian remains beautiful on the outside, but Basil must watch his soul diminish under the ‘tutelage’ of Lord Wotton, who’s hell-bent on turning Dorian into an uninhibited cynic.  I feel that the whole complex relationship between these three characters is glossed over in the film. 

The movie is pretty, I’ll give it that.  Colin Firth always does well whatever material he’s given, though for the most part his character seems like your run-of-the-mill period piece character: rather one-dimensional.  Ben Barnes is a pretty decent Dorian.  It must be difficult to cast someone whose beauty is supposed to be so stunning that everyone falls in love with him and, while Barnes isn’t really my type, he does have a very appealing charm.  I think that Basil was cast well, but written poorly.  Ben Chaplin does an excellent job of playing the poor rejected friend.  Basil was always my favorite character – he’s just so sympathetic.

All-in-all I might actually still recommend this movie to those who have already read the book, but only as a subject to be discussed rather than a film to be enjoyed.  It has its moments, but I found it to be too graphic and in-your-face for an adaptation of a book that was almost too subtle.  I assume those who haven’t read the book would like it, but they should really just read the book.  It’s a beautiful, tragic story.

I just thought I’d post a link to my other blog here on my site.  My best friend and I started co-authoring a blog called “Das Blogen” about a month ago.  She hasn’t written much, but I’m contributing a bit to that, which has kind of taken some of my time away from LATL.  So if you wanna check it out, I think it’s pretty cool.  It’s a lot like this one and I’d like to think it’s funny and interesting so if you wanna check it out, just follow this link:

http://dasblogen.wordpress.com/

1. That good ol’ sound.  Ask any fan of music how they prefer to hear it and they’ll tell you: vinyl.  Why?  Because it just sounds better.  That slight crackle of the needle on the dusty old record, followed by a nice full sound, in stereo, with the bass turned up just higher than the treble.  It’s just the best way to hear it.  Remember a year or so ago when they released re-mastered versions of the Beatles entire collection?  Well, that’s because, as anyone who owns a Beatles album will tell you, their songs just sound a whole hell of a lot better on vinyl than they do on CD.  I’d still take my vinyl over your re-mastered versions any day.

2.  It’s old.  All of the records I have on my shelf used to belong to someone else.  My Tears for Fears album was my dad’s, my Pat Benetar album was my mom’s, my Steve Miller Band record was my uncles, my Elvis record belonged to my Grandma, etc.  Plus I have a whole bunch of other records that I bought at a record shop that are all used.  When I look at my shelf full of records I can’t help but think of the people who owned them before.  Who went down to their local record shop and eagerly flipped through the records looking for these albums that I now have.  I think of the joy that these albums brought those people and now they’re bringing me that same joy.  Kind of amazing when you think about it.

3. The two-sidedness.  Yeah, yeah, it’s a pain in the ass to flip your record over after five songs, but it’s how the artist intended it to be heard.  Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” has four sides.  The whole album tells a story that is divided into four separate acts.  The thing about listening to a record is that it gives you a whole new appreciation for the flow of the album as a whole.  In many cases, the album wasn’t meant to be a collection of single songs, but an entire collection that fits together.  Pink Floyd, Simon and Garfunkel, late Beatles records – the order of the songs was specifically selected to make one cohesive product.  With iPods nowadays people rarely sit and listen to an album in its entirety.  Though, to their credit, many bands these days still now how to make a well-crafted album.  Like Arcade Fire.

4.  It’s personal.  Speaking of iPods, music is everywhere nowadays.  At the mall, in the car, on your iPod… With the invention of mp3 players you can now listen to whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you are.  The nice thing about a record player is that it’s entirely un-portable.  You can’t take your music with you.  If you want to listen to some Bowie or some Led Zeppelin, you’re going to have to wait, my friend.  You’re going to have to wait until you get home so you can put your record on and give it your full, undivided attention.  Because remember, after five songs you’re going to have to flip it over.  And that’s what’s good about them.  When you can just sit in your room, put on your favorite record and just listen to it from start to finish it really makes music seem more personal – more of an experience.  It’s no longer just background noise – it’s the main event.

That reminds me of a story.  One lazy summer day, I was lying on my bed listening to my Who album when my sister came into the room and asked me what I was doing.  I told her that I was listening to music and again she said “yeah, but what are you doing?”  I think that’s a major problem with music today.  It’s become background noise.  Listening to music has become something you do while you do something else.  And yeah, I’ll put on some jams while I’m baking cookies or cleaning my room, but sometimes I’ve just gotta sit down and listen to some music.  That’s all.  My sister’s not a music person so there’s a lot of things she doesn’t understand about it, but I find it a real shame that the everpresence of music in todays causes many of us to take it for granted.

But I guess that just makes me sound like an old person.  KIDS THESE DAYS!

Oh, and number 5.  They’re generally cheaper than CD’s.  The first time I went to the record store (I was there for like an hour) I bought Led Zeppelin, a Beatles record and I think some Simon and Garfunkel all for about $15.  $5 or $6 is usually the average that I get, though sometimes I’ll buy one that’s $7 to $10.  Though there are those rare finds that go for more.  I’ve seen $100 Beatles albums and I even saw a copy of Surfin’ Bird that was priced at $83.  I had to take a picture of it.  I mean, c’mon: bird is the word.

6. Old guys who own record stores are usually awesome in some way.

Another topic along this vein is the recent discovery in paleontology.  Brace yourselves, kids of the nineties, because one of the main characters of “Land Before Time” is about to go extinct… permanently.

I’m talking, of course, about Sarah, the bitchy little Triceratops.  Because, guess what, Triceratops never actually existed.

 That’s right.  For years, scientists thought that there were two different three-horned dinosaurs: Triceratops and Torosaurus.  The difference between the two was the size of the “frill” on their head – the Triceratops’ was smaller.  Paleontologists were stumped as to why they’d never found a young Torosaurus until they made the connection that, hey, maybe Triceratops are just Torosaurus that died young!

Think about that for a second.  That’s like an alien scout in the future finding a mummified child and a mummified adult and coming to the conclusion that Homo sapiens and Mini Homo sapiens are two different species.

But I digress.  I just don’t see why they can’t just say that there’s no such thing as a Torosaur because they’re really just adult Triceratops.  Why do they have to get rid of the one that everyone knows about and can identify.  Has anyone ever shown you one of their dinosaur stencils and said “Hey, look, this one’s a Torosaur!”

No.

And don’t laugh at my dinosaur stencils.  Only the cool kids have them.

This past weekend I was in Chicago for three days for one of the biggest music festivals in the country: LOLLAPALOOZA.  And it was sooooo amazing!  The sheer number of bands I saw in the span of three days blew my mind.

So I decided to write a separate post for each of the three days.  And use the pictures that I took with my kick-ass camera.  First one is Friday, August 6.

I drove down to Chicago with my best friend Jaime and her friend Audrey (who I got along with really well).  We were meeting my friend Nathan and his boyfriend Eric down there for the festival.  We were all staying in the same hotel: The Central Loop, which was a really nice place.

After we’d gotten checked in we walked down to Grant Park, which was only about a ten minute walk from the hotel.  They scanned our tickets, gave us our bracelets and the festival commenced.

My super sexy wristband.

The first band that we saw was Semi Precious Weapons.  Audrey went off by herself to see the New Pornographers, so Jaime and I met up with Nathan and Eric.  I was really excited.  Semi Precious Weapons open for Lady Gaga on her tour and they’re just really camp and fun.  And their music is awesome.  But something crazy happened during the show which, at the time, was so unbelievable I wasn’t sure it was actually happening.  Lady Gaga, clad entirely in fishnets, came out on stage, made out with the singer, then did a stage dive into the audience.

That's Lady freaking GAGA.

Credit for that picture goes to Nathan.  I, unfortunately didn’t get a good one.

Even without that happening, I think SPW would still have been one of the highlights of the weekend, but that just pushed it over the edge.  The minute we got out of the crowd we just looked at each other and said “holy shit!“

From there, I went off with Nathan and Eric to see Matt & Kim while Jaime went with Audrey to see the Black Keys.  I’ll tell you what, standing at the top of the steps leading down into the south side of the park was just unreal.  It’s just a huge field filled with people.  More people than I’ve ever seen in my life.  So insane.

The South Side: The Desert of No Return

 Matt & Kim were great, but we had to cut out early to get a good spot at the main stage for Hot Chip.  As we stood waiting for Hot Chip it was really apparent that most of the people in the audience were just there because Lady Gaga was on after them and they wanted a good spot.  Which was disappointing, because, musically, Hot Chip is waaaaaay better than Lady Gaga.  And they were great.  It was a really great show.

Hot Chip. This guy wore yellow pants. They were cool.

Now, before anyone flames me for hating on Lady Gaga, let me say this: I like her music.  It’s very catchy and danceable.  I like listening to it and I love singing to it.  But, c’mon, there are other people out there making much better music and writing much better lyrics.  Like the Strokes, who were playing on the other side of the park at the same time.  I would have loved to see the Strokes.  When I saw the schedule I died a little.  But I chose Gaga.  Why?  Because her show is really crazy.  I mean super insane.  And it’d cost a shit-ton of money to see her in concert, whereas I’m sure Strokes tickets wouldn’t cost nearly as much.

So that’s why I stood in the same muddy, disgusting, cramped spot – surrounded by crazy bitches – for like five hours wating for Gaga.  The wait was terrible.  It was hot, my flip flops stuck in the mud, I couldn’t move my legs, it stunk of sweaty people and spilled beer, and drunken a-holes kept trying to push their way in front of me.  But it was totally worth it.  Because that show was everything I had hoped it would be.  It was Krazy with a capital ‘K’. 

I think Audrey explained it best when she likened it to seeing Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time.  It’s freaky as hell, over the top, campy and wonderful all at the same time.  You really can’t help but love it.  You’ve just got to let it take you for a ride.  It’s that insane.

So, since WordPress is bing a bitch and won’t let me upload multiple pictures at this point, here’s a picture of my favorite moment of the night:

"It's the monster! It's the FAAAAAME MONSTER!"

Thanks to Nathan for the Lady Gaga pictures and I’ll see y’all tomorrow for my second Lollapalooza recap!