Category: Story

Vogue: The Song

5/25/2017

Madonna had the number one song in the entire world when she released “Vogue” in 1990. Lyrics from the song are air lifted into the description for this blog day and it remains one of her most iconic songs to date. It fell in between the critical success of Like A Prayer and the cultural ostracization of her sexual fantasies with Erotica and the Sex book.

Originally concieved as a B-Side, “Vogue” was instead issued as a stand alone hit, correcting a mistake her record label had made with one of her previous smashes, “Into The Groove”. Included on the I'm Breathless soundtrack it was one of Madonna's most integrated projects in which she portrayed seductress Breathless Mahoney in Dick Tracy.

The I'm Breathless Soundtrack sold over 7,000,000 million copies worldwide with "Vogue" being widely credited for this success

The song popularized vogueing into the mainstream, a style of dance popular in the New York club scene. It also name checked every relevant star of yesteryear, a tactic Lady Gaga made good on with “Dance In The Dark”. A staple of early 90's pop culture, “Vogue” would become one of the defining dance singles ever released.

Buy "Vogue"

0 Comments

Something Borrowed, Something Blue, & Something To Read

9/10/2015

0 Comments

I didn't spend a solid two days reading a book to not tell you about it. I've finally gotten around to reading Emily Giffin's Something Blue. I swear I thought her last name was Griffin not Giffin. Emily Giffin is a queen in the category of romance novelist.

I love her work. It's quick, fast paced, and always delectable in a tasteful way. I own a few copies of her books. All of them are courtesy of my older sister. Her husband forced her to get rid of all of her books in exchange for an e-reader. Now she has a kindle and a non existent book case.

My mother was the recipient of some of her books. My mother only reads Christian fiction and I came into contact with two novels by Giffin. Her breakout novel Something Borrowed and Baby Proof (my former personal favorite).

Now I would love to delve in the intricacies and of her other works like Heart of the Matter and Love The One You're With, but we have a star filled movie and two novels to tear apart.

The first book I read by her was Something Borrowed. The one that had a feature film tie in. It was the romantic comedy of summer 2011. I saw it twice in theaters. Once with the twins and the second with my great Aunt. The last time I watched it was when I was on my 19th birthday after my mother bought it for me at Target.

Now Something Borrowed tells the story of Rachel stealing her best friend Darcy's fiancee Dex days before their wedding day. Talk about sharing. Now Rachel does come across more sympathetic then my little blurb suggests. This was Emily Giffin's first novel and frankly not her best. It was however enjoyable, although I never quite gelled with the lead love interest.

He might have been attractive and wealthy, but he was an ass. He was indecisive and I was not about him. He needed to get his shit together. It was the same thing in the movie. Each time I read the book or watched the movie I hoped she would end up with her best friend Ethan. I didn't want Rachel with Dex. She was too pure of a cinnamon roll for him. Needless to say I didn't get what I wanted.

We were supposed to side with Rachel. After all Darcy was a bitch, but I always sided with her. I liked Darcy. I've always had a thing for the bitch.

Darcy is immaculately played by Kate Hudson in the film version. And, frankly Ginnifer Goodwin was her typical boring self as Rachel in the film. Although, shout out to her for keeping that role alive on Once Upon A Time. I think Ginnifer Goodwin is boring but she seems really sweet. I love what they did with Ethan in the movie. He was so cute and funny and if we're being honest it's the reason I started crushing as hard as I do on John Krasinski. Although, I do live for him and Emily Blunt's romance.

The lead was as dull and flat and two dimensional as could be expected. Dex was played by a reasonably attractive Colin Egglesfield. Although, I've always thought his face was somewhat disproportionate.

Kate Hudson played Darcy

John Krasinski played Ethan

Ginnifer Goodwin played Rachel

Colin Egglesfield played Dex

It might not sound like I enjoyed this movie, but it's a guilty pleasure. I live for it. If you need a good rom com please watch it. Queue it up on your Netflix.

This was not the corner piece in Emily Giffin's career in my opinion. Until I stopped at the library and picked up Something Blue. The follow up to Something Borrowed that tells the story from Darcy's perspective.

Author Emily Giffin (far right) reading a copy of Something Borrowed

It killed my body. Darcy is vain shallow and pretentious. She's a bitch and frankly far more entertaining a story teller then Rachel was. This book was my life. Of course Darcy stumbles upon some realizations and becomes less of a self centered bitch with the perfect life.

This book slayed. I say skip reading Something Borrowed and just read Something Blue. It gives you all the background information you need and it's ten times more entertaining. I'm honestly so upset that the movie version wasn't successful enough to warrant this sequel. Because, it is more of a sequel then a retelling of the original novel.

Something Blue knocked Baby Proof off the top of my favorite books by Emily Giffin. Kate Hudson deserves to shine in a sequel. It would be so good. It could be a television series. You could put on Lifetime if they would make it. I would live.

The summer is technically over, but if you have time on your hands or a free weekend to grab a book may I suggest Emily Giffin. Pick at random or go for Something Blue. You won't go wrong.

0 Comments

Video Games Are Art

8/27/2015

0 Comments

I went to an art exhibit with Boomer recently. The question posed was “Are video games art?” The point of the exhibit was to convince you that they are.

I dragged Boomer along, so we could get some culture in and because he's obsessed with video games. I am not so. One time a boy asked me if I played video games. I said no and then I was like well... And, he said to me that whenever people say that it means that they have a Wii.

He was right.

Now the exhibit was interactive. You could actually play some of the games. It was really cool. Boomer did not let me read most of the information despite the fact that I was blogging on the material. He already knew most of it. Still, it was amazing.

The very first home gaming system was the Odyssey. Yes, I had to google that. I didn't remember. I can't tell you much about it other then it's old as hell. This gaming system was released in 1972. I was unaware that these things existed outside of arcades until the nineties. The flagship game for this system was the immortal pong.

Now I learned something crazy about Pac-Man. So, Pac-Man is actually based off a Japanese story. The story is that this creature eats children in order to protect them from monsters. It really begs the question of who's the villain in this story. Now, I don't know about you, but I've never been good at Pac-Man. Or any video game.

One of the most interesting games I learned about was 1943: The Battle of Midway. The concept is that your this fighter jet attacking Japanese planes in order to sink one of the Japanese ships. It was one of the most successful shoot em up games. But, the crazy part to me is that this was created by Japanese developers. I find that to be an interesting choice. I don't know how I as Japanese person would have felt about creating a video game where the goal is for Americans to kill the Japanese. It's a little unsettling.

This game was even on the immortal Commodore. A gaming system I'd never heard of until this exhibit.

During the nineties video games really hit their stride. Sega released their console Genesis with their incredibly successful Sonic franchise. Did you know that Sonic only has one eye and that the character Tails was originally supposed to be based off of Madonna? It's crazy.

The exhibit also discussed computer games. The only one it really focused on was Myst. I knew of this game. It was an adventure puzzle game. It pioneered computer video games. My aunt loves this game. It's supposed to be incredibly difficult. You don't know what's happening. Your just this unnamed character exploring this island The only kind of puzzle games I ever played were the Nancy Drew ones. I'm just a dork enough to love them.

The craziest thing that happened is how upset Boomer was that Halo 2 was featured instead of the original Halo for X-Box. He was so mad. I even sparked a debate at my work over this very topic. Something was said about the multiplayer online function or something like that. Either way I didn't understand any of the anger. The only time I ever played Halo they had to turn off the friendly fire option, because I kept killing my partner.

Now the game I truly consider art was Flower. It was released on one of the Play Station systems and the entire point is to move flowers. You play the wind and you traverse this terrain. It's soothing and beautiful. Absolutely amazing. Now, I wouldn't have spent fifty dollars to play the wind, but I most certainly see the artistic merit of this game. It was visually stunning. The entire thing.

The final game I saw that sparked my interest was released a few years ago. It's called Heavy Rain. Boomer had never played it, but he had heard of it. It's the kind of game where you can make moral choices that effect the game play. You can kill people.

There's a serial killer who drowns people during heavy rain. It's intense. There's a cop. There's children. Multiple ways to get to the end of the story and different ways to act out the scenario. Your basically living this story. It would be too much for me, but I digress.

I don't know if I've done an accurate job of relaying the history of video games or convinced you that their art. But, no one can ever tell me that there isn't artistic merit to these games. Creating these worlds with computer models instead of a paint brush doesn't diminish their creativity.

Although, Halo is not art. It has the merit of a Kids Bop CD.

0 Comments

Hold Your Breath For Eight Years

6/17/2015

0 Comments

On the 16th Hilary Duff released her fourth studio album Breathe In. Breathe Out. This is my millionth friendly reminder to buy it. We had to wait for eight years for this album. I am not waiting another eight years. What the actual fuck was that Hilary.

In commemoration of the album event of the year. I'm rehashing all her past albums and reliving my childhood. I feel like it doesn't count. But, the Lizzie McGuire Soundtrack. Every 19 year old has that album or has it had it at some point in their lives or at the very least has a working concept of it. I can't honestly sit here and tell you it's high quality recording. What I can tell you is that “Why Not” is still my shit and Taylor Dayne's cover of RuPaul's “Supermodel” is amazing.

Buy "Why Not"

The “Tide Is High” is also on there. We have all sang to that song with hairbrush in hand. That's the moment I realized me and Lizzie McGuire are the same person. I've also shouted out the lyrics to “You Make Me Feel Like A Star”. If your a late 90's kid this soundtrack is essential.

Her first album was Metamorphosis (or her Christmas album, but I'm not even going there). Please don't buy Metamorphosis. I love it, because it's my childhood Not, because it's quality recording. It's on the level of ...Baby One More Time and that was not the highlight of Britney's recording career. Highlight is definitely “Come Clean”

I have a friend and I love her to death, but she was morally offended by the fact that Hilary Duff named her album Metamorphosis. She was like no that's tied to Kafka, Hilary Duff can't just do that. I rolled my eyes. She's philosophical and I'm a pretty face. She probably had a point.

Buy "Come Clean"

We're skipping over the Cinderella Story Soundtrack. Mainly because I don't have it and secondly because “Our Lips Are Sealed” is not a quality Hilary Duff recording. Her second album was self titled. I think it's a little lengthy, but it gives a lot of good Avril Lavigne vibes. Some songs could have been cut, but I feel it in every part of my body. The personal stand out for me is “Weird”. But, I have and will rock out to “Fly”, “Shine” and even to the cliched lyrics of “Rock This World”. I have no shame.

Buy "Weird"

Then, she did a greatest hits. God, knows why. It was called Most Wanted. I got it a Salvation Army for one dollar. It was the greatest find of my life. None of the new recordings are worth mentioning. The only one I've listened to on repeat is “Break My Heart” and if it wasn't so applicable to my life I would never listen to it.

Buy "Break My Heart"

Fast forward three years from 2005 to 2008 and the newest Hilary Duff album is Dignity. This is the first album I ever bought. I can't judge it from a reasonable perspective. It's perfect. It's a five star album. It's what I compare every album I buy to. It's dance and sexy. “Gypsy Woman” is a fun song on the album. My niece and I can turn up to that song. My personal favorite is still going to have to be “Play With Fire”. It's been eight years and I can rap every word to that song flawlessly. It's kind of embarrassing.

Buy "Play With Fire"

What's actually embarrassing is how I got this album. I was a shy young child who did not understand the concept of the alphabet and I went up to a clerk and I asked if they had “Hilary Duff's Dignity”. They laughed. I wanted to die. I got the album and I listened to it every day for a month and every other day for three months. I know most of the words by memory and there is now wear on the CD from all the times I've played it.

There was another random greatest hits. See my Snapshot Saturday day I did on it's lead single “Reach Out” for my opinion. It's flawless for an unnecessary greatest hits.

Link to full article: Reach Out & Touch Me

Now here we are in 2015 and the newest installment is here with Breathe In. Breathe Out. I can't be subjective. Your just going to have give me a few months to read it or label it certified ten times platinum. Right now I'm gagging and in love. Get yourself a copy and enjoy your summer properly.

0 Comments

The Feminist Manifesto

5/7/2015

0 Comments

Picture it.

It's 3:00 in the morning, I've just woken up from when I crashed at 8:00 the night before and the first thing I think of is Legally Blonde. Specifically the part where Elle says to Warner, “I'm never going to be good enough for you am I?”

I needed that. There's someone who's been making me feel really shitty recently. I feel like I'm not good enough or that I'm just this prop that they use when they're bored. I was even going through my twitter feed and I saw something I said. It was something along the lines of 'never try to convince someone of how fabulous you are'. And, I don't know if that's what I was doing, but I really needed Elle Woods to make me realize. That I am never going to be good enough for this person and that they don't care about me.

After this realization the only thing to do was to watch the movie. I didn't actually get to it at 3:00 that morning, but I did get to it later that night. I sat down with a bowl of grapes and orange juice and said to myself this is the most perfect snack for a movie. Except not really.

Hopefully, you remember Legally Blonde. My generation might be more attached to it then others. Reese Whitherspoon is in the lead. Everyone loves it. There was a musical. A sequel we don't need to talk about. The premise is that a beautiful blonde goes to law school to win her boyfriend back. When it's laid out like that it doesn't sound quite as amazing as it is. I guarantee you need to watch it. Forewarning that I took notes while watching this movie and that there will be spoilers.

This is the movie that decided the sorority I wanted to join. I wanted to be a Delta Nu just like Elle Woods (Reese Whitherspoon) and Brooke Taylor-Windham. Even if Brooke did get liposuction. Those hopes and dreams were ruined when my school didn't have a Delta Nu chapter among other inconsequential problems.

Warner is Elle's horrible, but reasonably hot boyfriend. Who dumps her and leaves her for icky Vivian Kensington. Who despite being in need of some mascara is not deformed. My favorite part of Warner breaking up with Elle is all the reasons comes up with him for leaving her. “Are my boobs too big?” “Am I too blonde???”

Warner is an ass and thank God, Elle realizes that she will never take him back. That said she does force her way into Harvard Law to get back with him. The best part is the video she filmed for it. If you've seen the movie, you remember the part where she objects to someone objectifying her and she says “I feel comfortable using legal jargon in every day life.”

Some of this movie is questionable.

Elle's dog is definitely a fave. He is a chihuahua. He wears a suit and tie at one point. His name is Bruiser. Which if that is not ironic, I don't know what is. He's basically the equivalent of Paris Hilton's Tinker Bell, except with a more masculine name. That dog is everything.

The manicurist also makes the movie. She's played by Jennifer Coolidge who was also in A Cinderella Story (the one with Hilary Duff). She's so funny. This is also where the iconic “bend and snap” came into pop culture. There is literally nothing about this role I don't like.

There is also so much good cleavage game. Reese Whitherspoon kills it in that bunny suit. Ali Larter also nails her cleavage. Like god damn. Racquel Welch also makes an appearance and I don't particularly remember her cleavage, but Racquel has amazing cleavage so I'm sure it's probably in there at some point.

Elle also solves a law case. Proving that you can be both smart and beautiful. And, that they are not mutually exclusive. Never forget the wise insight that “happy people just don't shoot their husbands”.

Legally Blonde is really just my childhood and it came to me in a time of need. When I needed guidance. When I needed someone to point out to me that I was not feeling good about myself. Elle Woods spoke to me and I just understood. Elle becomes valedictorian at the end and she says “you must always have faith in yourself”. I forgot that. I'm awesome and I let someone make me feel like I wasn't. If you have a person like that. This is my wake up call to you. Drop them. Fuck them. They are not worth it. You are fucking awesome and you don't deserve to have to put up with someone who brings you down.

0 Comments

It's The Girls!

2/12/2015

0 Comments

Not only is It's The Girls! the title of Bette Midler's fantastic new album. It's also representative of what today's Throwback Thursday. Girl groups. The doo wop and the rock n roll and the shimmying and sashaying of women all around the world.

What really started this was Fifth Harmony. You should know about them. They've been gaining a steady little fanbase. They had that one song “Boss” people really got into. They performed it on the New Year's Eve ball. Is was so funny. They were all lip syncing. It was beautiful.

It's there newest song “Sledgehammer” that's been gaining some traction. I think it's bland and completely basic, but I love it. If you could feel my pulse it would hit you like a sledgehammer. I would completely understand the inability to remain calm around your crush if I wasn't soooo cool and collected.

Buy "Sledgehammer"

Needless to say I've been jamming out to it. It got me thinking about whether girl groups were coming back. We shall see. Fifth Harmony hasn't been the success story of One Direction as of yet. And, even with the success of One Direction we've only had that 5 Seconds of Summer group make any real headway.

Girl groups were huge way back when in the fifties and sixties. I'm just going to be lazy and use Bette Midler as my jumping off point on this. You've got The Ronettes, The Chiffons, The Andrews Sisters, The Chordettes, The Crystals, The Angels. Basically if you start a girl group you have to start it out with 'the'. Of course I casually forgot to mention The Supremes. You know only one of the most successful girl groups of all times.

The Ronettes

The Andrews Sisters

The Crystals

The Chiffons

The Chordettes

The Angels

I would tell you the songs all these groups sing, but I just don't know how well up you are on your fifties culture. It was songs like “Mr. Sandman”, “Stop! In The Name of Love” and “My Boyfriends Back” that defined a generation. Or more accurately defined the aging patriarchs of my family's childhood.

Buy "Mr. Sandman"

Buy "My Boyfriend's Back"

Buy "Stop! In The Name of Love"

After the sixties. Girl groups died. I'm sure they had some, I'm just not sure what they are. The nineties were when they really picked back up. However, if we skip two decades, I wouldn't be able to mention how Joan Jett (singer of “I Love Rock n Roll”) was part of this very well received all girl rock band called The Runaways. The most successful song they had was called “Cherry Bomb”. That being said, most people don't know it.

Buy "Cherry Bomb"

Left Eye

There were two girl groups who defined the 90's. TLC and The Spice Girls. More then likely we would be hardcore fan girling over TLC if rapper Left Eye hadn't died tragically all those years ago.

Speaking of this new TLC project. I honestly don't want to hear it. I love TLC. I don't want new TLC music without Left Eye. I won't be buying it. I hope it does well for them, but I have no interest.

When it comes to The Spice Girls, this is age appropriate at this point. If all there remembered for is “Wannabe” that's all they need. That song is so iconic it hurts. And we still know who Victoria Beckham is. They may have only had three albums, but Lord knows that they are icons.

Buy "Wannabe"

You may be saying to yourself how could you forget about Destiny's Child. Because, if we're all being honest Destiny's Child is really just another name for Beyonce. Love them and all, but it's about Beyonce.

Destiny's Child

I suppose that's the question with the new girl group of Fifth Harmony. Which, one is the Beyonce? That I don't know. Time will tell. There all kind of boring. Sure their pretty, but not anything amazing. I don't know. I like that one Fifth Harmony song, but as a group they're dull. They don't have half of what The Spice Girls did.

That said wishing them luck in 2015 right along with TLC. Dominate the world. Shut it down.

0 Comments

Inanimate Objects Talking

1/29/2015

0 Comments

Most great kids movies have inanimate talking objects. You know Toy Story, Beauty and the Beast, I'm sure there are other ones. But, that would require me doing research or thinking about my childhood. God forbid. Feel free to add onto my list if you would like.

Recently, I have been rediscovering Sheryl Crow. Not that I ever lost her, but I just wasn't listening to her regularly. Me, freshman/sophomore year of high school all I listened to was Sheryl Crow. I still freaked out when her last album came out. I went from school to the store to buy it. Feels Like Home is everything.

That is not the point, though. In the first Cars movie Sheryl Crow contributed a song to the soundtrack called “Real Gone”. It's like an updated “Steve McQueen” and it is everything. Still obsessed with this song. I actually have the Cars Soundtrack, because of that one song. It is so good. I realize my music taste is questionable, but I stand behind this song.

Buy "Real Gone"

If you don't remember or haven't seen Cars you are depriving yourself. There are talking cars. Larry the Cable Guy is the voice of one of the characters. Paul Newman stepped out of retirement for this movie. It's from Pixar. I'm sure there are good life lessons in it.

I saw this movie at midnight when I was like ten. I was visiting my father. He was living in a different city at the time. And, he promised me he was going to take me to see Cars. But, he got off of work really late. When he got home he took me to go see Cars. At the expensive theater mind you. That's how I know my father loves me, because he spends money on me.

It was just a really great night and it's probably why I love Cars as much as I do. I don't have a lot of great memories with my father, but this is one of those. It's a good memory I have of him. Of course we had to go see Cars 2 when it came out.

We did not see it at midnight. And, might I add it was not as good as the first one. However, there is the one part about the wasabi, and one of the characters thought it was ice cream or something like that. And, whenever my father is about to eat too much of something hot, because he is a man's man, I tell him wasabi. I think it's funny. It makes me laugh. Other people probably don't get it.

They are making a Cars 3, so of course we'll have to see that. Cars at this point is a generational movie when my little nephew lived with us. He watched Cars a lot. I mean on repeat. And, he specifically liked the opening sequence with the racing. I was fine with that, that's where they play Sheryl Crow's “Real Gone” and I would sing it at the top of my lungs. And, he probably thought I was really stupid, but that's okay.

My nephew was also exposed to Sheryl Crow. When his parents left, when my parents left. One day I told him I was going to educate him. He might have been two. But, I put on my five favorite Sheryl Crow albums and cleaned. I feel like I did him a great service.

Side note not to go out of your way to see Planes. It's like Cars except with planes. That race. It is a ridiculously bad movie and if they make another sequel I will go see it. So, there's that. I swear to god, though, if a sequel for Planes comes out before a sequel for The Incredibles Pixar will be getting some very nasty hate mail from me.

0 Comments

Vogue: The Song

Something Borrowed, Something Blue, & Something To Read

Video Games Are Art

Hold Your Breath For Eight Years

The Feminist Manifesto

It's The Girls!

Inanimate Objects Talking

About

Archives

Categories

Vogue: The Song

Something Borrowed, Something Blue, & Something To Read﻿

Video Games Are Art

Hold Your Breath For Eight Years

The Feminist Manifesto

It's The Girls!

Inanimate Objects Talking

About

Archives

Categories

Something Borrowed, Something Blue, & Something To Read