I love this. :)

Because the world always needs more memes.

I think "Smug Gagarin" needs to be a thing. Sort of like Fuck Yeah Anthropology Major Fox. (Which, by the way, posted my submission!!!)

Anyway, this is inspired by my friend S. trying to argue space history with me. He lost the argument, btw. ;)

I've been typing my facebook statuses in memespeak lately... they seem to be a hit. ;) Frantically rewriting Like a Dog in Space from 78 pages to 45-ish. It's hard but should be rewarding!!

Meanwhile, listening to a lot of Chameleon Circuit. They call themselves Trock, which is like Wrock, but substitute Wizard for Time lord. anyways it's hilarious. Here's the website with everything else on it.

Listening to music and doing laundry.

This song is kind of ridiculously cute.

Do you like free stuff?

I know you do. I also know that at least some of you are THEATER PEOPLE (we are a special breed, we theater people). Kim, who is my boss at my fantastic internship that I am sure I will talk about some more at a later date, has a blog where she talks about THEATER, especially theater of the MUSICAL persuasion. (Musical theater people are an even special-er breed!)

And she is running a contest.

In her contest, she is giving away free stuff.

Specifically, she is giving away a songbook (aka sheet music) by up-and-coming musical theater composer Ryan Scott Oliver. The rules on how to enter are over on her blog which you will go to by clicking this handy dandy link. It's really easy and harmless and won't take more than a few minutes out of your day. So I advise you DO IT. DO IT NOW.

Also, the dude wrote a dark re-imagining of Peter Pan. What's not to love?

Sanitized Anarchy, and what I've been doing this week.

So I went to go see American Idiot, which to be honest was sort of disappointing. For all the avant-garde anger of the concept album, the musical was alarmingly mainstream. While from a technical and performance aspect it was pretty phenomenal, I couldn't help but feel let down. First of all, any play that you have to read the wikipedia summary just to understand... is not actually a good play. Second of all, everyone got off scott-free at the end. It would be really, really nice if, for once when writing a musical about sex, drugs, and rock and roll, not everyone got a happy ending. Like, why did I just watch Jesus of Suburbia run away to the big city to do hard drugs if at the end he goes back to Bumfuck, New Jersy to hang out at the 7-11 with absolutely no consequences? Everyone got a happy ending, more or less, except for the ambiguously-skinhead ambiguously-gay ambiguously-real drug dealing St. Jimmy.

Seriously I would have watched a whole play about the drug-dealing leader of an Anarchist Cult of Personality, but I digress. The point is, American Idiot is no Spring Awakening, despite its shared leading man (Oh John Gallagher Jr, I sure do love you). In fact, it's not even Rent or even Hair, if we want to go really far back. It's Anarchy Lite, so you can pretend you're being edgy but it's still fun for the whole family. Your ten year old already knows the word "fuck" and has probably puzzled out how sex works, so what's the harm, right? Sure there's some drugs, some beer, some masturbation, but really... there's nothing in here that won't offend your grandmother.

(Well, maybe... Is your grandmother as liberal as mine, who loved Avenue Q? Because Avenue Q might just be edgier than this.)

Anyway, so what's Leez been up to this week? (I promise, this discussion's going to loop back around to my complaints about American Idiot in a moment.) Leez has been hanging out at the Young Playwrights Inc. conference where she's making new friends, doing a lot of revising, and attending master classes. Well, she was, because it's over now and the whirlwind has stopped and she's taking some time to sit down and write a proper blog post about it. (Actually, gonna cut the whole third person thing.)

Anyways, so one of the great master classes was with a playwright named Thomas Bradshaw, whose work tends to be a bit... controversial. One of the things we talked about was how Americans tend to be very puritanical towards sex, drugs, etc in our theater, as opposed to Europeans who are a bit more loosey-goosey free love. The flip side of this is, of course, that Americans are morbidly fascinated by the stuff that repulses them. So we want to see violence, but not too much violence. We want to see sex, but we want people to get under the covers or turn off the lights first.

Which is exactly what American Idiot does. The sex is covered up, the drug use is stylized, guns shoot flags that say bang. For a play that is ostensibly about the Bush years, it doesn't really say anything about the Bush years at all. There's grandiose language, but it doesn't deliver. St. Jimmy preaches anarchy, but there's no anarchy to be seen. Everyone goes back to Bumfuck and gets off scott free. They all grow up.

Everybody lives.

Everybody lives, and I didn't give a fuck, because not one of these characters was worth giving a fuck about. I was intrigued by St. Jimmy, but I have to compare him to Graverobber from Repo: The Genetic Opera, because I think they're part of an emerging class of character... the Squandered Badass. He's that dude who despite not doing a whole lot of anything is just sort of the most memorable part of the show. A character who, due to being more interesting or better played than anyone else, just seems wasted because of their small role. I don't really care about Jesus of Suburbia. He's a whiny angsty white boy. But St. Jimmy - who is he? What's his story? I know one interpretation is that he's just a figment of JoS's imagination, or else an alter ego he invents, but I kind of like the Anarchist Cult story better. (Although if he is JoS then it explains why he's so ineffectual.)

Basically, I watched this musical and just started thinking of ways that, given the album, I could have done it better. Maybe I'm just getting too jaded and cerebral for Broadway musicals. Or maybe I missed the point. I didn't hate the show - from a tech and performance standpoint it was excellent - I was just underwhelmed by the story. It didn't live up to its themes and my expectations.

Maybe when you write a musical about the Bush years, it's helpful to actually mention any significant events from the Bush years, yeah?

I'll write more about YPI at a later date, hope you enjoyed my rant.

So this is pretty cool.

Vocaloids are one of those weird japanese things that I've always been sort of tangentially aware of but never really cared about, though they are pretty neat. I have friends who are really into this stuff, know all the names and histories of the different characters, but I never really cared. They're computer programs. If you have enough time on your hands, you download them and make them sing things. It's fun to listen to, but it's not really something I really care to get involved with, you know?

But I thought this was a really cool video.

Like some kind of weird fanfic (My friends are the best.)

So last night I finally sent my friend Caleb (who writes an amazing blog called Does This Make Me Look Hipster?) a copy of Like a Dog In Space since he's been begging to read the whole thing for literally forever. And he read it and loved it and raved about it, and then he was like, "I've had Katy Perry's song Firework stuck in my head this whole time."

Five minutes later, he was adjusting the song lyrics to vaguely summarize the plot of the play, and it was quite honestly the most awesome thing I've ever received.

With his permission, I'm reposting it here. (The first stanza is in capslock for some odd reason.)

DO YOU EVER FEEEEEL LIKE A DOG IN SPACE
DRIFTING, THE RUSSIANS LOSE THE RACE
DO YOU EVER FEEEEEL LIKE YOU'RE INANIMATE
HAVE NO WAY TO TALK, YOUR BEST FRIEND IS A ROCK
YOU HAVE TO FIIIILE THE PAPERWOOOORK GET MISTER PAPPEEEERS TO SIIIIIGN
JUST WEEEEEAR THE ROOOOOCK AND TRY NOT TO DIE
CAUSE BABY YOU'RE A MAAAAAAANEQUIN
FOR DECADES YOU WILL TRYYYYY TO WIN
MAKE US GO AW, AW, AW
CAUSE YOU'RE STILL NOT A COSMO NAW, NAW, NAW-UT
Do you ever feel like a dog in space,
Drifting past the moon,
No way to come back home?
Do you ever feel, feel inanimate,
Unimportant,
Like an old Maket?
Do you ever feel you’ve been decided for?
Your time’s already up and you have just barely begun.
Do you know that there’s
That there’s a guy for you
And he’ll help see you through
You’ve just gotta create
Your fate
And take
The bait
He’ll give
You life
Just open your eyes
‘Cause baby you’re a Mannequin!
Doomed from the start, never to win.
Show them all the mi- i- ight
The might that you personify-y-y.
Baby you’re a Mannequin!
Prove to them that you can win!
Make them go ah-ah-ah!
As you become a cosmona-a-aut!
You don’t have to feel like a dog in space.
‘Cause now you have a place
To help in the space race.
If you only knew
The possibilities
The opportunities
Borne from necessity
Could be they’d help you find
The place that you could go
A man whose sure to know a way to keep you comin’ home
Bring him a meteor
He’ll open up a door
It won’t be long before
He will help you create
Your fate
So don’t
Be late
He’ll set
A date
There’ll be no more dummy crates!
‘Cause baby you’re a Mannequin!
Doomed from the start, never to win.
Show them all the mi- i- ight
The might that you personify-y-y.
Baby you’re a Mannequin!
Prove to them that you can win!
Make them go ah-ah-ah!
As you become a cosmona-a-aut!
[This part didn’t need to be changed:]
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon.
It’s always been inside of you
And now it’s time to let it through
‘Cause baby you’re a Human!
And now you have a chance to start again.
Leave them all behind in fli-igh-ight
And redefine what’s wrong and ri-igh-ight.
Baby you’re a Human!
Papers let you start again!
Be what they all said you’re no-no-not!
You will become a cosmonau-nau-naut!
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon!
Boom, boom, boom,
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon!

COMRADE LAIKA ROCKET DOG.

How had I never heard this before?

La la la life is beautiful.

We live in a beautiful world/why is this song stuck in my head?

Like really this song is so irrelevant to anything ever.

GUSTER.

Was amazing. My brother has lots of pictures of the interior of the Beacon theater (Both Guster and their opening act, Jukebox the Ghost made a big deal about how it was "The most gorgeous room they'd ever played in.") so I'll get those from him and post them later. The opening act played about a forty minute set and I was pretty sure I had no idea who they were until they played this and then I was like, WAIT I'VE HEARD OF THEM. Anyway they were pretty cool, gonna look them up on iTunes later.

(Also, re: this video, last night I was thinking the song reminded me of Charlie Brown and hey look what they're referencing!)

At that point the theater was pretty empty and Max and I were eying each other like, "This is a sold out show?" but apparently the pros know to skip the warm up guys and show up sometime between 8:45 and 9. By the time Guster launched into their first song (Manifest Destiny, from Ganging up on the Sun), it was a packed house. So they played two older songs, followed by Stay With Me Jesus off the new album (Pattering to the audience, "We're a couple of Jews who don't really believe in God who went and wrote an album that keeps talking about Jesus") and people were still kind of filtering in and getting warmed up, but by the time they started on Ramona, everyone was singing along and it became very clear that audience participation was mandatory.

They played a mix of new and old stuff, a lot of crowd pleasers and favorites - at one point a guy somewhere behind us shouted "AIRPORT SONG," at which point they played Airport Song and I have no idea if he knew the set list or was a good guesser or they listened to him. (They did not respond to similar requests for Timothy Leary).

Some highlights:

"Do I pull off the white denim look?" - at which point they launched into an impromptu jam session about "White denim, black shades, white shirt, shoelace."

During Happier, Max turned to me and asked, "Is this new? I've never heard it." "No!" I yelled back. "It's really, really old!" And then joined the rest of the crowd in shouting "ONE MORE INCH, YOU SON OF A BITCH."

For the start of the first encore, they played "Diane," which has a really distinctive opening base line that will forever stick in my head as the first Guster song I ever heard and is still one of my favorites. This video isn't from the show last night, but it's a pretty good approximation. (People really do sing along to every single song at these shows. See!)

They played two encores, which the crowd seemed really intent on forcing to go on and on and on. Every time you thought they were done, one of the stagehands would hand them a different guitar and they're play something else. The second time they got dragged back out by popular demand, they came down to the edge of the stage and waited for the whole room to be quiet and played an acoustic of "Jesus on the Radio," which was an awesome way to end the show.

In total they played 25 songs in just under two hours, and it was absolutely awesome. So worth the jacked up ticket price I paid on Stubhub!

HERE, I FOUND A COMPLETE SETLIST.

Anyway, when I get Max's photos I'll post them but currently that is PFAD. (Post for another day. Max's word.)

Caleb thinks this is awesome but I don't quite agree.

The offending product:

Sounds like:

Did it first, did it better:

Called and wants her gimmick back:

Would like Katy Perry to stop raiding her closet:

In short I don't really have a point I just don't like Katy Perry and would like to dissect her ripped- off music video with its inconsistent message and hot button issue sensationalism and stollen scenic and musical elements. Also I needed something to post about.

Selections from: Leez and Caleb snark the VMAs.

We were kind of hoping for wild and crazy to happen, but everyone was alarmingly well-behaved tonight. So here are our best lines, anyway.

Re: Katy Perry on the white carpet.

C: So, katy perry looks and sounds retarded.

Me: She has cotton candy in her hair. Also she's kind of a ditz. Also high on cold meds. This is going to be hilarious.

C: Yeah. XD Is she supposed to be performing.

Me: Idk. Snooki looks like she spent an hour in the toaster.

Re: Jenks

C: Lmao, jenks guy: 'look at me. I hang out with autistic kids.' 'and a rapper!' 'who went to jail!'

Re: Nicki Minaj is from outer space, and other weirdness in that dance number.

C: Um. Nicki minaj is ridiculous. 'haters, you can kill yourselves.' that dace.

Me: I think will.i.am. just did a sig heil.

C: Nicki minaj is a malfunctioning robot and will.i.am is a nazi. He even has the pink band where the swastika would be.

Me: Who thought this was a good idea?

Re: Bad Romance takes Best Female Video

C: That's right! Gaga wins!

Me: Katy Perry is giving her the stink eye.

C: Yeah. She wanted to go home with some trophies.

C: LMAO. 'FOR REMAKING THIS VIDEO OVER AND OVER AGAIN'

Re: The song "Kings and Queens"

Me: This song is about owls.

Re: Justin Bieber's performance.

Me: If this is not the gayest jbiebs performance ever idk wat.

C: Yeah. And all his dancers are black.

Me: Actually this goes beyond gay. This is just plain queer.

C: He actually has babies.

Me: That was just plain strange.

Re: Weird commercials

Me: Did you know that plan b one step is only one pill and works better the sooner you take it?

C: And it is not The Abortion Pill.

Re: Usher

Me: These jackets remind me of the fifth element.

C: Yeah! Like leeloo's outfit, but more.

Re: Bad Katy Perry/Nicki Minaj patter.

C: Katy is so high.

Me: That wasn't good patter. That was just Katy and Nikki being awkward.

C: What planet is nicky minaj from?

Me: Idk, but not this one.

C: She put on a british accent... and then made a weird face.

Me: Nikki minaj isn't British. I think she's a Martian.

Re: Florence and the Machine

Me: Florence looks less like a man without the kabuki makeup.

Me: It's like she's got polyphonic spree as her backup dancers.

Re: T-Swift

C: Ohmygod shes about to get him back

Me: Revengeeeeeeeee

C: I guess not?

Me: ...I think she's forgiving him.

C: Fuck. So much less interesting.

Re: Gucci ad.

Me: That was rumer willis.

Me: Rumer Willis and Chris Evans having sin city/sky captain and the world of tomorrow pastiche.

C: ....what.

Re: Airplanes

Me: Hayley Williams is like, "I'm a white girl. I can't dance like this.

Re: Linkin Park

Me: Everyone, just come to peace with that you liked linkin park in middle school and chill out. [In response to an immense amount of Linkin Park hate at the party I was at.]

Re: Kanye

C: Let's have a toast for the douchebags.

AND ONE MORE THING

Rick but not a Rickroll. And surprisingly really, really good.

You are running out of steam.

After giving it an afternoon to think it over, I think I like Funeral better than The Suburbs when it comes to Arcade Fire.

An issue I've noticed a lot of bands have is they fall into "Every track sounds the same" syndrome. It's hard to describe, but basically it's when you're listening to a CD on repeat and instead of really getting any sense of it, it just sort of devolves into noise because there's nothing really impressive about it. Occasionally one song or a line or two might stick out, but in general the whole thing is sort of... bland. I never found Funeral to have this problem, but The Suburbs definitely falls into this.

Am I the only one who thinks it's weird for a Canadian band to sing about American politics and pathos from the perspective of an American teenager, especially when the band members are in their late twenties/early thirties?

I can easily think of a bunch of bands that hit their stride and put out albums that don't all sound alike. The Killers' Sam's Town is this. Considered it was followed up with Day and Age, it wasn't a fluke. The Decemberists can oscillate wildly within one album, and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's just that after the brilliance that was Funeral, The Suburbs feels like a regression. I like it okay, but I haven't found any new favorite songs on here.

For the record, this is my favorite Arcade Fire song.

Back in middle school, I was on the cutting edge of music. I listened to Guster and Dashboard Confessional and Something Corporate before any of my friends did. And then at some point I stopped caring and didn't pick up Fall Out Boy or The Decemberists or Ben Folds or Lady Gaga until everyone else had been listening to them for ages.

But damn it I love Mumford and Sons.

Earworms

Does anyone know how to get a Scissor Sisters song out of your head? It's been playing on repeat for the last two days.

No?

Well, have a youtube video so you can hear the kind of hell I've been in. Catchy, catchy hell. Not to mention possibly the strangest music video I've ever seen... well, maybe not. Maybe Mika and Lady Gaga are weirder.

But that was pretty strange. No, really, I have no idea what I just watched - do you? The song is still stuck in my head, though.

Today I read the entire archives of the webcomic Girls With Slingshots. Definitely worth a read, good stuff.

Three weeks until I move back into university housing! Four until classes start! HOORAY!

I always wondered what the girl's whispered bit is in this song.

Apparently it's:

"i've heard of ghosts,
good ghosts
who wander the battle fields at night
guiding soldiers out of danger
you can see them almost everywhere (?)
always warning of stray bullets
and lurking enemies
...if i was such a ghost,
i would stay so close to you,
you could feel my breath on your cheek"

For some reason I really like this. :) (But we all knew I'm a Decemberists fangirl already, right?)

Dear Lady Gaga:

I know you've said you'd rather collapse on stage than break the illusion by drinking water or taking a break, but I'm sure I speak for all your fans when I say I would rather see you drink water or take a break onstage than collapse on it.

July, July!

This reminds me of a song.

Never seemed so strange. ;)

Where I come from, rain is a good thing.

I really have no idea what this title is, I saw it as someone's facebook status a few days ago.

Anyway, it rains a lot here. My first week home I didn't notice because it was May and not really summer yet. So I left for a few weeks and came back and suddenly it was June, and it has stormed every day this week. Like, crazy violent thunder storms that start around four and continue into the night. One night I was up until about one AM and it was still thundering when I went to bed.

I started on the new script last night. Not going to say too much about it, just that I'm hoping to have a working draft by the end of the summer.

Also, KPop. Because my friend got me watching it. And the music is kind of generic but the boys sure are pretty. Try not to think too hard about where the "bad touch" wires at the start of the first one could possibly plug in. ;)

Proof that my musical tastes never really evolved past 90s boy groups,

Leez.