GLEE

OKOKOK. I'm sorry I've been MIA. Turning 21 really puts one behind in responsibilities. But, the one constant during all the shenanigans that tend to be life at The Girl's House (The nickname given by our group of friends to mine, Katie D, et al's abode) has been a little show that you may or may not have heard about. I mean, it's not really that popular, and it's hasn't had that much hype surrounding it at all. So, in case you didn't know, besides Julia Nunes, the new love of my life is GLEE. It comes on every Wednesday at 9/8c on FOX.

Now besides the singing, besides the dancing, besides Lea Michele, besides Jane Lynch as the devious coach of the Cheer-ios Sue Sylvester, we need to talk about newcomer Chris Colfer who plays Kurt Hummel. (K...U...R...T...KURT!) Kurt is fabulous. Simply fabulous. Katie D and I text eachother Kurt quotes. I sent this one just now: "My name is Kurt Hummel and I'll be auditioning for the role of kicker." And Colfer's voice is out of control. The first time we met Kurt in the pilot back in May, he held a note long enough to throw in his signiture part-fix to the hair. His delightfully bitchy confidence and fashion sense makes every episode a joy to watch.

Now, before I fall too quickly into the tone of a Good Housekeeping book reviewer, let's talk about the story line began in episode 2: "Acafellas." Mercedes is under the impression that her and Kurt are an item. However, everyone else knows what Mercedes is ignoring and Kurt hasn't admitted to himself or anyone else. Kurt is gay. Here is where the show not only differs from anything on television because there is singing and choreography fit to a plot, not to mention a plot; but, GLEE deals with real issues kids face in Highschool. And the most important one to me is Kurt's coming out.

Being out in Highschool is a completely different experience than coming out later in life. Especially college. In college you are allowed to be crazy (Ahem, birthdays make good excuses...) and you are allowed to experiement and break the mold. That's what it's all about. But in highscool, if you are different, if you break a mold, you are putting yoruself at risk. Why is that? Who fucking knows. And it fucking blows. But if it weren't for shows (ok enough...) like GLEE, these things wouldn't be talked about. I was never out in highschool. My best friends in the whole entire world, my never look back, love you no matter what, support you even if you are wrong until you are 50 and living with 2 cats and a ferret best friends knew. And if anyone else knew, thanks for not telling me sooner so that I could have gotten on with everything already.

But alas, I digress. My point is Kurt's story is one happenning everyday. But GLEE is treating it with respect, with reality, with humility, with class, with humor. And that's why GLEE is the new love of my life and Kurt's Single Ladies number makes me want to spank my ass. And yes, he does do the finger point sneak attack.

Sidenote: GLEE is also a social-networking site for the LGBT community. Who knew? Click the picture to check it out.

Kanyegate Continues

Well this is wildly inappropriate and fucking hilarious. I don't know what it says about Hitler being in support of Taylor Swift (with her lovely blond hair and all) but this hissy fit and the accompanying captions are genius. I found it on a new site called "I'mma Let You Finish" (good God that shit got put up quickly) which has a series of lolcat type things (technical term: internet meme. Look, you learned something), all featuring or about Kanye's idiocy. Some of them are pretty funny; some of my personal favorites are below.




And I particularly like this one because, well, I tend to like any joke uses other pop culture to poke fun at pop culture:

I LOVE THE AGE OF MEDIA

And there's why. Everybody and their father flipped a shit about Kanye West going insane and stealing the mic from Taylor Swift (who I actually like a lot) as she was receiving an award the other night. I know my three roommates and I (CK included) all stuttered a collective "What the fffuck?" at the time. But anyway, point is, even Obama thinks he's an idiot! And we've got the audio to prove it! What I love about this clip has nothing to do with Kanye or Taylor Swift or even Obama's opinion about the incident, but more the fact that he caught himself calling Kanye a "jackass" (which, to be fair, is one of the nicer things I've heard said about him in the past couple days) and then realized that it would be all over the damn internet like "the fly thing." And then someone told him, hey, the fly thing was good for you - you're a ninja! Which is a fair point. But I love that with all the damn media outlets there are today, not only do we get the President's well planned out speeches, we get these little things too. I know it's not important, but I feel like I sort of know him better, and he's more humanized, and that makes it easier for me to trust him and relate to him. Plus it just makes him seem fucking cool. For more proof of that, I give you "the fly thing," below.

Eric Bana's Blank Stares are Scary.

So I went and saw The Time Traveler's Wife on opening day with my mom. Who did not make for stimulating post-movie conversation. But besides that, I really enjoyed seeing Clare and Henry's life and home and clothing come to life. Those were the things that stuck out to me when reading. That and the blatant roller coaster of emotion of having your loved one torn away from you to maybe come back, maybe not, without control. That's awesome. But I feel like if you haven't read the book you are going to be COMPLETELY LOST. And Eric Bana's inability to show emotion doesn't help root the story line either. Bana's sad face and happy face and liar face is basically all the same thing.













Liar Face vs. Happy Face vs. Sad Face


All somewhat similar. But hey, I'm no Ronfire99 so my cinematic opinion might be slightly less than reliable.

In order to really experience the story of The Time Traveler's Wife you should READ IT. What a concept, reading a book, huh? Here's the link to IndieBound, which has a database of independent booksellers. Find an independent bookstore, get off your computer, out of the house, and go buy it from a store that actually cares about you. Not the internet and not from Barnes & Noble. Because you don't even know who Barnes is, much less Noble.

ABDC: Beyonce Challenge

So coming up on Sunday is another ABDC, but before that happens let's talk about last Sunday's Beyonce Challenge.

Some Highlights:

AFROBORIKE WAS HOT.



Even that dude with the dreads that look like too-thick spaghetti pieces had it going on. All about it.

VOGUE EVOLUTION: Who knew that you don't need the proper parts to be incredibly feminine. Femininity is not linked to a body's physicality. It is also very difficult to spell.




However, I do not approve that this:


Beat this:




AMERICA PHONE VOTING FAIL.


I'm not even sure that We Are Heroes even danced on that stage. Like yeah I get that their task was to do some intense ticking or whatever. (I do not have the proper jargon to speak about this successfully) But that chain trick was INSANE. Pure insanity. And that got sent home? I think it's all because of the weird judging/voting system that ABDC uses. After 4 seasons, I'm still not even sure that how it works. So even if I wanted to, it's not even clear enough for me to do the damn thing. That's a problem. And the obvious cause that the more talented, better looking, all-female dance crew is gone. Now we're left with strange-looking Asians who may or may not have epilepsy. Awesome.

But at least we got to see this heart-felt goodbye from Artistry in Motion:



Sorry the quality is so jankity. Oh, and the new Wilco album is out of control.

Let's get excited for some martial arts moves on Sunday... I think I might get take out for the occasion.

Obsessive Much? ABDC!

I know that's not the proper order of the alphabet. That's cuz it's not! It's time for a new season of Randy Jackson presents (yet never actually appears on) America's Best Dance Crew! Get excited for JC's pretentious critiques, Shane Spark's inarticulate awe, and Lil Mama's ghetto fabulous 'tude and lip gloss use. Oh, and Mario Lopez in all his glory sans rhythm or wit... Who knew that such an unrelated group of people could bring to us such an amazing experience known as ABDC!?



You can watch the whole first episode straight from MTV.com by clicking HERE. But, I'm recapping and doing introductions all around below... so if you can bear to watch without Mario, then just keep reading. I've got your back.

This season seems to bring dance crews from all over, with more obvious styles. So basically, they aren't all AZN.

And the one explicitly AZN dance crew is trying really hard not to be THAT crew. Even though they so obviously are. Fr3sh:




There's the rumba-ing, salsa-ing, throw your hips around like no one cares Afroborike.




There's Artistry in Motion. One of the girl groups. 2 Good Things: NOT SLUTTY NOT ANOREXIC. Their whole thing is that they don't look like the stereotypical dancer, but that DON'T MEAN SHIT. And they are all about giving back to the community. They all teach dance to young girls.




Second girl group: We Are Heroes. Their name kind of reminds me of a Will Smith movie.




The Reason This Show is Now Worthy For Dyxieland Coverage: VOGUE EVOLUTION. This is a crew that bring vogueing mainstream. If Shane can love it, you can love it. They not only have a tubby queen, they have a MTF Transgender crew member. And they're black. So basically every minority statisitc that anyone ever wants to talk about (MTF Transgender maybe possible being a small exception...) and these people are FEARLESS. They own it. They work it. I'm just worried they aren't dynamic enough. But I can't wait to keep watching and find out.




STUPIDEST IDEA EVER: Southern Movement. They're lame. This is not how you represent the Durrrty South. I've seen better. Now this is just tacky.




Rhythm City is our Rags to Riches crew. They represent the Bronx, NY and have an immediate ally in Lil Mama. Clean, classy, but not very creative. I hope for some innovation.




Classic B-Boy Crew: Massive Monkees. Entertaining to watch, but we've seen it. Especially on ABDC. Jabawockeez? Anyone? Anyone? Beuller?




Fabulous in Hats: Beat Ya Feet Kings. They do this whole feet beating thing that is apparently the Shit in Washington, DC. Don't worry, I have field correspondents out doing research...





So that's all of the crews. Unfortunately Fr3sh was the first to "walk it out" last Sunday. Vehement denial of being the AZN crew obviously did not pay off.

UPDATE: Sorry the videos are all cut off. If you don't like it you can go and embed all that code again yourself. Thanks!

So That's Where He Learned To Dance

My sister was very excited about this one. So here's the news, which you may have heard, but now there's a video: Channing Tatum, that muscular guy from those dance movies (Step Up), used to be a stripper. Calm yourselves, ladies. He dressed and danced to a sort of boy-band theme, complete with the hairdo and lip-syncing, under the name Chan Crawford. He was pretty good, if you're into that sort of thing. I find stripping to be a fascinating career, but with guys it seems to be less soul-crushing and more cheesy. In his case, it's just a little embarrassing. But nice six pack! He was 18, and sadly the club had a no-nudity policy. Ok, less chatting, more video.

DanRad has a GIRLFRIEND?

I missed this! Harry Potter is dating someone, who is NOT a boy, and who is NOT me. This is a crime, because I've been in love with him for years and even more since I found out that he's Jewish. British, Jewish, gay-friendly, liberal, Harry Potter. WHAT ELSE DO I NEED IN A MAN? He confirmed their dating rumors in late July (sorry, I was busy working) but they've been together since like 2007. What the hell? This Laura O'Toole bitch better watch her back. She was the understudy for the main girl in Equus with him. Daniel! You're a millionaire! At least go for the girl who got the actual part! (Although apparently Laura's been picked up to be the main girl in the next production. WHATEVER.) She's Irish and four years older than him. I look Irish and am his age, roughly.... I need to move to England.

Harry Potter Update

This will be quick, but I just wanted to follow up on my HP excitement from before. Whenever anyone asks me if I liked the movie, I'm torn. Yes, the acting continues to improve. Yes, Dumbledore was done much better in this movie than he has before. In addition, the little interactions between the kids - particularly the main three - and the additions of the two hilarious characters of Lavender Brown and Prof. Slughorn were works of sheer brilliance. And Harry on Felix Felicis was probably the funniest part of the movie ("not to mention the pincers"). Plus the special effects were good. BUT. But but but. I do have my frustrations. Here are my top 5. Also, consider this your spoiler alert.

5. Ginny sucked. She's a great character in the book and in the movie she's really weird and spazzy. When she's hiding the damn book from him and she's like whispering and telling him that he can leave their kiss there too? WTF? Way to ruin a great character.
4. They cut out half the scenes with the Pensieve. Or more. We learn nothing about the Gaunts, almost nothing about Voldemort's heritage or his growth into manhood, which is like the whole fucking point of Dumbledore's lessons with Harry. A lot of other scenes, not just Pensieve ones, were shortchanged too, like when Harry convinces Slughorn to come to Hogwarts, or the whole thing about Harry following Malfoy to find out what he's up to. He gets obsessed with that. And Dobby and Kreacher weren't even in the movie! At all! AND they never introduced the Prime Minister, or mentioned the fact that Scrimgeour was the new Minister of Magic!
3. No battle at the end of the movie! Bill was supposed to be mauled, it was a major plot point leading to one of my favorite lines (when Lupin is telling Tonks that she deserves someone young and whole and Mr. Weasley looks sadly at Bill and tells him that young, whole men do not always remain that way. WEEP.) and it just wasn't in there. The Death Eaters are just supposed to walk through Hogwarts and no one is going to fucking stop them? We're supposed to believe that Dumbledore left the castle with no protection, and Harry did too? Yeah fucking right!
2. How is Harry supposed to go look for Horcruxes when he wasn't told that they're going to be things that were important to Voldemort, not to mention things that belonged to the founders? He asks if they could be anything, like a shoe, and in the BOOK Dumbledore is like, "No, dumb fuck, that's a Portkey, Voldemort wouldn't put part of his damn soul in a damn shoe," but in the movie Dumbledore's like, "Yup, sure could be in a shoe." Oh, awesome! Harry was almost totally in the dark when looking for Horcruxes in the book, but here he doesn't even have a fucking place to start!
1. They burned down the fucking BURROW? WHAT THE HELL? And Harry chases Bellatrix into the swamp lands that magically appeared around the house and fucking FENRIR is there? Who, by the way, they never explain. WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO ADD TO THE PLOT? I understand stuff like in the fifth movie they made Cho tell Umbridge about the DA rather than Marietta, because it all comes to the same thing anyway and this way they don't have to waste time introducing a character and they don't have to add the scene where Umbridge uses the Veritaserum on Harry so they just cut to the chase, but this scene adds nothing. If anything, it adds a sense of instability that wasn't even in the book. There were a few safe places, and the Burrow was one of them, and now that's lost. It's supposed to be a big fucking blow, like a HUGE breach of ministry security when the Death Eaters show up at the wedding at the Burrow in the 7th book. Will there even be a wedding now? Bill and Fleur weren't introduced as being engaged, and their wedding's where the whole thing about the Hallows starts for Harry. How are they going to start the fucking next movie? What were they thinking?? Shit.

Yes, that is what I consider quick, because I could go on about this for a long time. If you kept up with my crazed rambling I salute you and recommend that you see a counselor. And for Harry Potter day at camp, I went as Fawkes the Phoenix. My sister was Dobby. We love camp/Harry Potter!


And welcome back CK!

Les Petits Chevaux sur Tout le Monde!

So last year in preparation for her Oral French Final, my roommate (J Bear) and I were going over her prompts. One of them was something like: What would your ideal world be like? You had to answer in French. Tired, annoyed at inane questions, and ready to be done with that shit, her answer went something like this: "Dans mon monde ideal, il y aurait les petits chevaux sur tout le monde!" ("In my ideal world, there would be tiny horses everywhere!") To which I added something weird and she continued with something else weird and so on and so forth. Completely amused with ourselves, we dissolved into giggles and barely finished the prompt.

Well, J Bear, it is with good spirits that I inform you that your ideal world is close at hand.



Koda, a dwarf American Miniature horse (that is, American Miniature is already a breed of teensy equines, and Koda is a dwarf one) is a beautiful, 13-month-old, cat-sized creature who is often mistaken for a battery-operated toy. Koda was born with a lot of health problems, like wonk legs and teeth that are too big for his lil mouf, but he's had surgery to work on some of his problems and he's recovered well. Other "problems" are that he has "bulging eyes, upturned nostrils and a wrinkled nose" but (maybe this is awful) I think that makes him look even freaking cuter. They thought they would have to put him down at birth, but he's still doing well. He's about 23 inches tall, which is about as high as a normal horse's knee, and he's not expected to grow any more. Can I get an "awwwwwww?" More pics below courtesy of the Daily Mail.

It's a Ukulele, I'm in love.

Hello dwindling Dyxieland readers! I'm back. After 9 weeks of working in 106 degree weather telling kids to bend their left elbow as they shoot a bow and arrow I finally return. Thanks to Katie D. for holding down the fort while we both worked our camp counselor magic on the youth of America. You know, the future and shit.

So I did miss a lot of prime blogging opportunities and was kind of out of the loop of the real world stuff. But I did get the memo that Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and the OxyClean guy died. Since we all knew about that, I wanted to bring to you some things that People Magazine isn't covering, much less knows about.

First.

Anyone But Me is a webseries that just finished it's first season. It focuses on the relationship of a young lesbian couple living in an explicitly post-9/11 world.


What I love about the plot is that it's not about coming out or reasons why. The orientation of it's characters is a characteristic of a human being and not a reason why for plot development. It just shows the relationship of two young girls trying to keep it together when one of them moves to Westchester from NYC due to her dad's 9/11 related health issues. The other thing i love about the show is the obvious chemistry between Vivian and Aster (VivSter) played by Rachael Hip-Flores and Nicole Pacent. Who, in their interview at Autostraddle, are delightfully nerdy. But nerdy/cool, kind of like Marty McFly pre-time traveling Delorean. I mean, Rachael talks about the His Dark Materials Trilogy. GUSH. Don't worry, we've already twittered about it.
It's not all lesbolicious. Like the L-word. Which was basically soft-core porn. I mean, there are prime time television shows that are racier than ABM. But there is something for everyone. It addresses urban/suburban dynamics, racial prejudice, straight relationships. I'm not lying when I say it's a modern interpretation of a coming-of-age story. It's not written by your mother or her tennis-playing-afternoon-bloody-mary-drinking friend who want you to come of age according to their divine plan. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It has an opinion, a point of view that is all it's own, and girls kissing. Did I mention there are girls kissing? WOO!


Second.


Julia Nunes. [pronounced NOONS]

Thanks best friend for posting this video on my facebook wall.



So then, after falling in love with this Julia Nunes' big blue eyes, ballsy voice, and ukulele use, I watched most of her videos and came to the conclusion that she so cute! I might be in Love. Internets love of course. I've never seen anyone use such perfectly timed YouTube video tags. She's turned it into an art. I'm all about it. Turns out Nunes is a college student (like me) posting videos from her room at home (like me) or her dorm room (like me) and opened for Ben Folds (not like me) and has cd's you can buy on iTunes (not like me). And she doesn't just do covers. She writes songs like this:


Ch-ch-check her out.

Twitter
Myspace
Youtube
Official Website
iTunes

Third.

Someone wants to make Green Day's American Idiot album into a musical.
Who do they have to play St. Jimmy? John Gallagher Jr.
Who is that you ask? Click here for a memory refresher.

A Green Day Broadway musical? Sounds sketchy to me. It seems like they are trying to create Spring Awakening part Deux. But created by the cheaper, second cousin of Spring Awakening. Or like, it's the pokemon trade of a hoilfoil Weavil for a platinum edition Charazard. Or something. Potentially benefical, but most likely not.



I now declare Dyxieland somewhat stable and living after our summer hiatus. So check back for more! viva!

Heeeeeeell Yeah

I have my tickets for the midnight showing already (JULY 14, mark your calendars!). Basically everyone I work with at camp (I believe) will be there - it's going to be a whole thing. The day before will be "Harry Potter" day at camp, and we're all supposed to come in costume. I'm thinking of trying to be a centaur, but I'm not sure how I'd do it. Being Hermione or Ginny seems so obvious and boring, you know? And I'm not short enough to be a House-Elf (that's what my sister's doing). My work is very important to me, so I'm really going to have to brainstorm this shit.

Katie D's Fav Corners of teh Internets

Ok, so I may not have as much time to be on the computer during the summer as the school year (two jobs, hence far fewer posts, sorry folks) but when I DO have time I like to waste it by going to sites that amuse me. Some are blogs, some are ways to live vicariously through others' stupidity - whatever. But assuming that not everyone wastes quite as much time as me, I'm here to share some of my favorites with you. You're welcome.

1.
Obviously. I'm in college, so this is a requirement. I never had a MySpace, but my sister did, and I always thought it was obnoxious and brightly colored in a way that burned my eyes and for some reason it always sang at me and I couldn't make it stop anywhere near fast enough. Bam, here comes Facebook, which is (until the creation of apps, and now still if you keep them in check) clean, neat, and easy to navigate. It's fantastic. You can be "friends" with people you barely know, literally never speak to them (face to face or in type) and yet know all about them and look at all their hilarious drunken photos. Plus, the bumpersticker app is the shiz. Of course, friends' parents and my small cousins (one just turned 10) now have facebooks, so I have to be slightly more careful, but mostly this just entails blocking them from seeing certain pictures of me and not giving a fuck otherwise.
Facebook.com

2.
This site is not for the faint of heart, and not for those who are not truly dedicated to celebrity gossip. We here at Dyxieland update whenever we have a vague inkling of something to say and a good half hour on our hands. Michael K, Dlisted's guru, updates about two pages PER DAY. By himself. I mean, granted, it's his full-time job, but that is intense! This is someone who I'd love to be friends with in for real life: he's a bitchy gay dude who lives in NYC and is proud of his whorishness and drinking and loves to share his glittery opinions and obsessions and personal anecdotes with the world. He is where I get about half of my vocabulary and 78% of my joy.
Dlisted.com

3. Fmylife
This was the first in a series of a few websites, others listed below, that I found that depend on people giving experiences from their own lives up for the amusement of others. Fmylifes always start with "Today" and end with "FML" but what comes in between is basically anything that happened to you that is pathetic, embarrassing, sad, and (most importantly) funny that you'd like to share with the universe. Example: #163888 Today, my boyfriend told me he couldn't hang out with me because he felt really sick. I went to his house anyway to surprise him with homemade soup. I walk in to his room only to find him hooking up with my sister. She can't drive, our mom drove her there. FML

Bahaha. That blows. Anyway, after this site, another appeared, which is amusing in the same way that British humo(u)r is amusing. In the same vein, MyLifeIsAverage is where people can provide things that happened to them that are humdrum, or that could've been catastrophic but worked out just fine. Vaguely amusing, but like those in-depth things your boyfriend or girlfriend tell you about traffic - nothing to write home about.
Fmylife.com

4. Notalwaysright
As in, the customer is... notalwaysright. Unlike Fmylife, this site provides entire conversations, rather than 2-3 line anecdotes, all of which happened at someone's workplace. It's basically a catalog of how fucking stupid people can be when they're the customer, and how they can act in erratic and highly entertaining ways when they don't get what they want. This site also introduced me to the term "PEBCAK" (Problem Exists between Chair and Keyboard) which I've been trying to insert into daily life ever since.
Notalwaysright.com

5. Textsfromlastnight
"Remember that text you shouldn't have sent last night? We do." This site makes me want to be sluttier and drunker more often, in a good way. It updates pretty much constantly, and includes texts, in convo or one-liner form, that people sent to friends/hookups/boyfriends/strangers that give a glimpse of crazy shit that goes down with people from my generation. Example:

(970): I just remembered that last night when we tried to walk off the spins you said "pretend i'm your pet dinosaur" so i walked you around on an invisible leash while you made t-rex hissing noises.

It generally encourages random sex, heartlessness, drunkenness, and blackouts. Obviously I find it hilarious.
TFLN.com

6. Lolcats
It all started with a simple captioned picture of a cat. Now it's an internet (or life) phenom. The premise is simple: cats are strange. People take strange pictures of cats. They then caption them, often mimicking the cats' inner dialogue as we imagine it would be. Hilarity ensues.
The picture that started it all:


icanhascheezburger has spawned sister sites, such as:
roflrazzi, which is like Lolcats for celebrities,
totallylookslike, which compares pictures of products/people/inanimate objects that resemble each other in eerie ways,
punditkitchen, which is like Lolcats for political figures,
graphjam, which makes up funny graphs,
and failblog, which shows pictures of epic, epic fails. All worth a look and a chuckle.
icanhascheezburger.com

7. ASofterWorld

It's a comic that's not always funny, sometimes really weird, often focused on zombies, and typically a little crude or unsettling. I think I might like it because it reminds me of my friends. It's pictures of things that may or may not be directly related to the text, then text that is superimposed on the pictures. Interesting, unique, worth checking out.
Asofterworld.com

8. BeyondCynicism

Beyond being a shameless plug for my comic- (and comic book-) writing friend, I actually find these comics to be pretty funny, if hopelessly geeky (but that makes it better in a way. It's a niche!). Two guys, Ron and Marty, write and draw the comic, and sometimes do commentary/blog posts/rants underneath the comics that may or may not actually have to do with the content of the work above. Updates are infrequent but the jokes are good, sometimes relevant to pop culture, and more often than not include some sort of video game/comic book reference. Maybe if enough people read it, the guys will feature Chatty Kathy or myself (but since CK isn't writing about them it really should probably just be me) in the comic one day. Hey, he already put me in a comic book. Maybe I shouldn't be greedy? That sounds unlike me.
BeyondCynicism

9.
This is an interesting blog because it is written by former commenters on another blog that was killed by the falling economy (Mollygood). I was a commenter for a while, and I mainly went to the site because so many people who posted were intelligent and witty. When MG died they floated around Jossip (a sister, but like a slow and incompetent sister to MG) for a while before saying "fuck this shit" and developing their own site. While I find the term "Squee" to be obnoxious to the max, the ladies (and maybe gentlemen?) who run TS are really clever and just obviously write for the fun of it. Also, the commenters are vitally important to the site, which I find refreshing and cool for a blog.
TS.com

10. Maddox/ Tucker Max

Maddox is crude, offensive, creative, and recently really really popular. Tucker Max's blog site is headed by the words "My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole." The two of them, Maddox who writes an opinion blog and Tucker who runs a blog about all his drunken exploits (it's like TFLN but from one guy), hang out occasionally (since their fame) and are incredibly successful assholes together (and separately). I'm pretty sure they're also just really clever and found a niche that made them really popular. No matter if they're jerks or geniuses, thebestpageintheuniverse and tuckermax.com are full of fantastically funny rants and stories. Not for novices.
Maddox
TuckerMax.com

GO WASTE TIME NOW!!

Dyxieland Salutes Billy Mays

Adding to the "why the hell are people my parents' age dying?" fuckery of this week, Billy Mays, 50, was found unresponsive by his wife this morning in his home in Tampa. He was famous for being a soft yeller and selling cheap and useful products on TV, including, but not limited to, OxiClean, Mighty Putty, and Orange Glo. Yesterday, Billy was in a plane whose tires blew out upon landing, at which time passengers were buffeted, many of whom sustained minor injuries. Billy reported to a local news station that some objects "hit me on the head, but I got a hard head." It is unknown whether the accident had anything to do with his death, and an autopsy is pending.

Vince Shlomi should be put in the protective ward of whatever facility he is currently visiting; clearly, this is not a good week for the ridiculously famous. In all seriousness, let Billy rest in peace, and I hope this is the end of the recent celebrity death cycle.

Michael Jackson has Passed

And it's honestly a shame. I'm too young to have grown up with a Michael Jackson who wasn't surrounded by controversy, but I pick up a lot of information through the blog scene and Vh1 and I realize that he was one of the most talented and successful artists who ever took the spotlight. I hope he lives in peoples' memories as someone who changed the face of music. He passed away in Los Angeles from cardiac arrest at the unfairly young age of 50. It's a shock, and it's awful.

People who also passed in the past few days were Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett. McMahon, 86, died because of health complications related to bone cancer and pneumonia; Fawcett, 62, passed after a lengthy battle with cancer. Rest in peace, legends.

Obsessive Much? Andy Samberg

Ok, who's surprised that Katie D. loves Andy Samberg? He's funny, he knows and works with Justin Timberlake, he was adorable on Ellen, and he's JEWISH. COME ON. He's also all jaw-liney and wears glasses and has that great Jew hair... swoon. Shockingly, he's not like 22 as he appears. He's really 30. Weird, I know. I never thought he's be older than Justin (who is 8 years older than me (28), which I realized when I was 8 and he was 16 and I decided that it was an ok age difference and we could still get married when I got older. Yeah, I plotted then too) but you learn new things every day. For instance, a little while ago, on Mother's Day, I realized that he and Justin did a sequel to their hit song and loving ballad "Dick in a Box" which is called "Mother Lover." (Below.) Then today, I learned that he will be starring in the film adaptation of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which is a FUCKING PHENOMENAL children's book that I take to camp with me and read to small children during down time. Classic weather-borne food debacle. Anyway, he's fantastic, if you don't love him you should, watch the clip and enjoy Susan Sarandon. Also, Justin should give up already and just join SNL, he's on there all the fucking time. Omeletteville, anyone?

Kevin Bacon Wasn't Quite as Pretty

Well this one came out of left field. The powers of the production world have been searching for someone to play the lead in the remake of Footloose, the classic tale of a young man who goes to a town where he is not allowed to boogie down but who won't take no for an answer. Kevin Bacon played the lead, Ren McCormack, 25 years ago, and since they announced the remake everyone (i.e. Hollywood bitches) has been abuzz with speculation on who would take over the part. Zefron refused the role, much to my sadness because of course he is very talented and, you know, pretty. He said, basically, that he didn't want to do another musical right now. But they've found someone who, if possible, is even MORE beautiful to take the part. After weeks of negotiations, Chace Crawford, of Gossip Girl (what a blah show) fame is signed on to rock the famous role. I'm not sure if he can even dance, but he will undoubtedly bring lots of ladies to the theaters. Personally, I think he seems like one of those so-beautiful-he-gets-away-with-being-a-bit-slow guys, but maybe his acting skills will improve with the new character. I mean, in GG he basically plays a hot guy who is kind of quietly charming and doesn't do that much thinking but does do a lot of women. Which I'd imagine is kind of what he is like in real life. I'm not expecting all that much, but I'm always open to being pleasantly surprised. And it's kind of like going to see a Hugh Jackman movie, isn't it? I mean, I've heard Wolverine sucks, but if I'm watching Hugh run around half naked, who the fuck cares how the movie is? Let's just cross our fingers that there are a lot of sex scenes! Beauty below.

Oh, also in talks to be in the movie: Pocket Person Hayden Panetierre, who I liked best in Remember the Titans when she was like 5, and Amanda Bynes, who was actually really good in Hairspray. My pick is Amanda. Thoughts?

Sweetest. Thing. Ever.

So, as you may know by now, I don't have many soft spots. My one weakness is triumph over adversity. So, every freaking Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, I cry.

Well. This soppy romantic little gem of goodness caused me to tear up. In the library. While analyzing Modernism and the role of the Harlem Renaissance within that movement. Obviously, I needed a break.

I only hope someone loves me as fearlessly as these two clearly love each other. Bare with it for the first minute, the wind lightens up.






Let's face it. Only two lesbians could pull off something that cute and thoughtful and meaningful in 10 minutes and have it not be cheesy. That proposal was NOT cheesy! If it was some dude, people (and by people I mean "I") would shrug it off as gross and silly. But this just melts my heart.

It's public. It's fearless. It's what needs to happen in the gay community. My favorite part is the acceptance. The proposee gets on her knees and they hug and she accepts her ring from the proposer already on her bended knee in old fashioned hetero proposal style. I love that a traditional image was flipped on it's head and they created their own. And the hugging, my GOD the hugging. Quality right there.

Thanks.

Oh Colbert

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That "Gathering Storm" vid is all the news this week. The Funny or Die spoof was good, but being a Daily Show/Colbert Report kid myself, I also really like his take on it. Watch out for lightning. Oh, and just because I love Neil Patrick Harris and this is an excuse to post this video, remember this gem from the Prop 8 debacle? NBH and Jack Black are brill!

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... from Jack Black

See ya lata, sinners!

Obsessive Much? WEEDS

It's BACK!!!! Get Excited. IS NANCY BOTWIN REALLY PREGNANT WITH THE TIJUANA MAYOR (WHO HAPPEN TO BE A DRUG SMUGGLER)'S BABY??!?!