Watch out for the "Guilty Pleasure"

One should always be wary of one's guilty pleasures, lest they turn into a dangerous addiction. Unfortunately, as far as a certain guilty pleasure is concerned, I am past a point where I could acquiesce to piqued caution and am heading dangerously down a slippery slope. Yes, right now bad 1980s music is my caffeine, nicotine, crack/cocaine, if you will. Sure it was all fun and games when I got Wham!'s "Last Christmas" in my head around the holidays and decided to download it "because it's hilarious!," and it seemed like a great discovery when I embarked upon my New Order obsession with one of my friends, but today, as I forked over $.99 to purchase Michael McDonald and Patti LaBelle's "On My Own" because I heard it in a store and remember "how great it is," I began to question whether I was just having fun, or whether I am indeed heading into unpredictable and unwise music territory.


The Awesomely Bad Spandau Ballet, who sang "True" and "Gold" among others.

Lately I've started to worry. After trying in supposed jest to convince several people of how great Spandau Ballet is, I began to realize that perhaps I like Bad 80s Music. After all, I seriously enjoyed the 80s songs from VH1's recent special "50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs", songs like Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night," Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," and the number one choice for most awesomely bad song, Starship's "We Built this City." It's a good song! Yes, I know, the joking "it's a good song!" protest is the first sign of possible addiction and skewed musical perspective. Yes, I am beginning to realize most people do not like these songs, not even as a joke. Worst of all, for me, there are no more jokes anymore, and I think I should be worried, because when the jokes end, the bad tastes begin...

Person No 1: "Do you want a banana?"
Person No 2: "No thanks, I'm trying to quit.

I heard that today helping out at a rest stop along the path of the Tour of the North Shore Bike tour to benefit the American Cancer Society.

Adventures. Yes, I feel the best way to live life is to look at each situation that one encouters as an adventure, find the humor in it; then the next adventure comes along. When this works, it's good.

Adam Brody, so great

How one teenager can affect the world. The little bastard.

The Supreme Court Justice Rankings

1. Favorite Supreme Court Justice: David Hackett Souter

Recently thrust in the spotlight because of a jogging incident, Souter is much more than a "stealth justice." He was appointed by George H.W. Bush, who was encouraged to nominate Souter by his aide John Sununu. Sununu was sure Souter would be a Scalia clone with a less controversial paper trail. Souter surprised everyone by voting with the "liberal" wing of the court on abortion, affirmative action, search and seizure, etc. cases. He's awesome.

(more to come...)

And the Favorite Person of the Week Award goes to...

This Man. The washed up rockstar character of Billy Mack (Bill Nighy), in the film Love Actually. He has some especially hilarious and character-perfect lines in the movie, such as,

Billy Mack: Kids, this is a message from your Uncle Billy. Don't buy drugs. Wait until you're a rock star, and they give you them for free.

Dec: So Billy, I believe you've brought a prize for one lucky viewer.
Billy Mack: Yes, Ant or Dec. I've got this fabulous, personalized felt pen.

Mikey, DJ interviewer: What's the best shag you've ever had?
Billy Mack: Britney Spears. No, only kidding, she was rubbish

Billy Mack: And as much as it grieves me to say it, it might be that the people I love is, in fact, you.
[Pause]
Joe: Well, this is a surprise. Ten minutes at Elton John's and you're as gay as a maypole.

And of course, Hugh Grant must be mentioned, because, well, no explanation is needed here, I mean really now.



His quotes:
The Prime Minister: Who do you have to screw around here to get a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit?

[The Prime Minister is knocking on doors to find Natalie]
Old Lady: Aren't you the Prime Minister?
The Prime Minister: Yes, in fact, I am. Merry Christmas. Part of the service, now. Trying to get round to everyone by New Year.

I like this quote from a movie reviewer about the movie:
"Love Actually is like a romantic comedy for people with ADD. The film requires little thought, it passes quickly, and one will be smiling the entire way through."
He definitely has me pegged.

And with all of the pictures I post on my blog, I feel as if it is a weblog for people with ADD, the Love Actually equivalent of the internet

The Green Mill

Last night I went to one of Chicago's most well-known establishments, The Green Mill, a jazz lounge on the Northside. It was frequented by Al Capone back in its heyday when the Uptown neighborhood that it resides in was the place to be, especially if you were a criminal (haha). I recommend it to anyone who comes into town. There is usually a $8-15 cover, but the live jazz is great and well worth it.



The place is classic Chicago. When my friends and I got there, there was a Cubs game playing on the TV in one corner, and jazz playing on the stage. The sign outside has been there for ages; it's lighted with yellow and green lightbulbs and is hardly a glamourous sign like those that adorn the yuppy bars of Chicago. The bar is made out of old, dark wood, with an old unused cash register that sits behind it, and a crusty, bald-headed bartender. The seating space consists of vinyl booths, standard tables and chairs, and the barstools by the bar. The bouncer lays down the law if anything is moved around.



At one point the bartender said to another guy who works there (mostly bald, beard and mustache, dressed in polyester pants, glasses="very Office Space" as one of my friends pointed out) "I was talkin to Benny last night and we decided we should write a Country Western song about me." It was hilarious.

Anyway it was a lot of fun, and I recommend it for a night on the town. Get there early though! The booths near the jazz acts fill up fast!!

District of Crrrrazy

On this most recent visit to D.C., I realized what a crazy city it is. Just bizarre. I don't know how else to explain it. Maybe it is the mix of people there. So here are some various funny people and happenings that I encountered while in D.C:

-a man with a t-shirt saying "The South Will Rise Again," confederate flag logo on front, and naked blonde with the flag draped around her on the back of the t-shirt. man was around 55 or 60
-D.C. has streets going one direction by numbers (First Street, Second, etc..) and by letters the other direction, many of those signs are actually known as units (e.g. A Unit), well we spotted the street G Unit right near Union Station
-we met a guy on the Metro around my age with a t-shirt that said "Caucasia knows how to party" and he told us that he was visiting his brother who "manages skyscrapers," proceeded to say "I think he's really a receptionist because I went to visit him and he was sitting in the front office."
-Metro again, behind these teenagers on the escalator who start going into this monologue about how "escalators never can break, they just become stairs" and they looked back at me, and I told them that was funny so one of them informed me it was Mitch Hedberg (i think that was the name).

"If men could get pregnant, you could get abortions at home depot."-a sign from the March

Were you at the March?

This weekend was absolutely wonderful. I was one of the million+ who attended the March for Women's Lives. [The numbers are in dispute. For example, The Chicago Tribune has chosen to report the conservative estimates of the event, saying that there were 500,000-800,000 marchers. If one compares photos of this march with photos of the Million Man March, which had 800,000 marchers, the March for Women's Lives is noticably larger.]


The March for Women's Lives


The Million Man March

When my mom, sister and I arrived at the mall at around 11, we proceeded to walk west towards where the speakers were, and it was incredible: There was no end to the amount of people. If one looked down on us from above, we would have appeared a sea of pink, purple, and yellow (the three main colors of the signs). Many of the organizations who were at the march had made signs. Most prominent were the Planned Parenthood, NOW, and Ms. Magazine signs. There were many other creative homemade signs and other great sights, like the giant set of mock ovaries that some people were holding. My mom made several, one that said "Democracy not Theocracy," and she got many requests to be in pictures with the sign.

About halfway down the mall, my mom and sister and I rested for a bit and I found a sign that said Students for Planned Parenthood, which I liked and decided to use. A bit later, once we had begun walking, I found a Free Martha sign which I also picked up. That sign was the source of many comments.

We started marching, and it really went by pretty quickly. There was a small amount of anti-choice protestors who periodically stood at the outside of the march's boundaries holding up horrid signs that were incredibly exploitative. One family even had a poster hanging above their child, using him in their protest. Everyone was pretty astounded and angry by the way they were exploiting their baby.

Still, the anti-choice marchers were really a blink compared to the incredible showing that we had. We marched past the White House, though we were not able to get very close to it, symbolizing the anti-democratic attitude of the current administration.

The march has been reported as being for the abortion cause, but it was very underplayed that us women who marched support access to contraceptives and Planned Parenthood, which lowers the need to make the abortion choice. On the other hand, the anti-choice protestors are against both (some at the march were against oral contraceptives!!), and access denied of course leads to a greater number of pregnancies.

We finised up back at the mall where people such as Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Gloria Steinem, Gloria Feldt, Hillary Clinton, and so on spoke. I should also say that like the women of all ages and races who were there, there were men of all ages and races there, and they were great. Some were wearing t-shirts that said "This is what a feminist looks like." It was all very phenomenal.

There not too many things that I will use the word "amazing" to describe because I think that the word has become trivialized by overuse among people of my generation, but this march was definitely one of the most amazing things I have partaken in in my life. I would do it a hundred times more!

Today I scheduled an appointment with my CAS (College of Arts and Sciences) advisor to discuss the possibility of changing my major. Encouraged by some helpful conversations and e-mails with several people, I am taking action on this "major life crisis" (pun intended!). I gave myself some time to complain about academics in general and about my current major in particular, which is always good as long as it is followed by someting constructive.

I don't even know if I want to switch, but it's worth looking into.

P.S. If anyone has some good suggestions for a major, let me know.

you are ghostwhite #F8F8FF

Your dominant hue is blue, making you a good friend who people love and trust. You're good in social situations and want to fit in. Just be careful not to compromise who you are to make them happy. Your saturation level is very low - you have better things to do than jump headfirst into every little project. You make sure your actions are going to really accomplish something before you start because you hate wasting energy making everyone else think you're working. Your outlook on life is very bright. You are sunny and optimistic about life and others find it very encouraging, but remember to tone it down if you sense irritation.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Funny

arthie13: i'll be working on the raper tonight, but can always use a break, especially with my cool as ass, ballz to the wallz older sis. elaine

(AIM Conversation with Arthur, 4.13.04)

Wei Lin Q. Penis

(write in vote for ASG elections, 4.13.04)

Oh, how soon we forget!

Tonight as I was skimming over some of my older blog postings, I stopped to linger on a couple of recent ones about California and how much I missed it, and I suddenly realized how significantly these feelings have dulled in the last couple of weeks since being back.

On the one hand, it is good to be rid of these feelings of longing, since they really do not get me anywhere nearer to happiness or satisfaction--after all, I have no prospects of going to California in the near future, and a persisting desire to go back would thus be more agonizing than anything else. On the other hand, isn't it sometimes so exciting and validating to love a person or place so much that when it's gone, it becomes the source of such pain? I think it's satisfying because it indicates that one has a source of meaning in one's life.

Although I don't consider my longing for California and for being on vacation a truly tragic tale of separation, I still think it's a good example of how we so quickly lose touch with the immediate feelings we had for something or someone as a result of being separated from them, and it makes me question, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." Does it really? Or is the phrase "how soon we forget" perhaps a more apt way to address this issue of separation?

I think that one of the most brilliant advertising campaigns of all time is the United Airlines use of George Gershwin's beautiful piece "Rhapsody in Blue" because of the symbolism of the title and the air of elegance, beauty, and worldliness that the piece conveys for United Airlines.

Please, I implore you to view their newest series of brilliant commercials. Fucking best ads I've seen in a long time!

Also check out their cool print ads that I reckon will be considered art gems somewhere down the road. Also, notice the Expressionistic/Modernist style of the UA art that I have included in this post.

"California is a place in which a boom mentality and a sense of Chekhovian loss meet in uneasy suspension; in which the mind is troubled by some buried but ineradicable suspicion that things had better work here, because here, beneath that immense bleached sky, is where we run out of continent." -- Joan Didion

Salon.com has an interesting article this week on how Suzanne Somers and the huge success her home-shopping ware empire has been overlooked by the cultural writers at large because she flies below their "upscale" radar:

"Because while we have all thoroughly mulled more upscale lifestyle/spiritual pashas like Martha, Oprah and Dr. Phil, Suzanne Somers has gone about her business largely unnoticed -- that is, except to the millions who have, in some way, bought into her brand."

While this may be a somewhat overbroad assessment, I love articles like this in which the author diagnoses a cultural phenomena. Read up if you're interested!

Recommendations

Clothing color: bright blue
Movie: Jersey Girl (yes, I liked it ok, and what's more, Ben Affleck was hot)
Magazine Article: "The Case Against Perfection" by Michael J. Sandel in The Atlantic
Music: Barry White
Place: San Diego (what else?)
Candidate: Barack Obama

I have found my spots

According to a Find Your Spot quiz that I took, my top three ideal locations are Little Rock, Arkansas; Baltimore, Maryland; and Honolulu, Hawaii. I'm not sure how a southern city edged out the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and the West Coast regions as number one, but it's intriguing. Anyway, I'm just glad that San Diego, L.A., Washington D.C., Boston, and Orange County were also on my list, but where is San Francisco? Well the rents are pretty outta my league. I reccommend this quiz though. Pretty in depth and fun to think about, no?


Baltimore (near D.C. and Maryland has some good...crabs, but seriously, sweet)


Honolulu (wouldn't it be love-ly?)