I’m afraid. Very afraid.

Watch these first. They won’t link.
Future of Music Journalism Part One
Part Two.

I just watched these this morning on Hipster Runoff and it made me scared. As well as the fact that the Seattle Times just got sold, and it’s possible that Rupert Murdoch might purchase The New York Times by the end of the year. That’s how bad the print journalism is. And even the music mags are in danger of going under. I’m afraid that I might not have the option to be a music journalist in a few years. As much as I love blogging, it’s causing the business that I want to be a part of to disappear as we’ve always known it.

The fact that we have humanity at our fingertips, and anyone can write anything about anyone at any time of the day, and it’s available to everyone at that instant has made print journalism almost obsolete, and no one is looking to the professionals for anything anymore. Bloggers like Carles and all the people over at Hype Machine and Idolator are widely read. Hype Machine is the quintessential mp3 blog, where you get the newest and upcoming artists. The most credible source on the internet for instant music information is Pitchfork.

Maybe I’ll work for Pitchfork. That would be cool. As much as I want to write for a mag like Rolling Stone, or Spin, or even NME, if by some crazy phenomenon that I move to London, but I don’t know if there will be a job waiting for me in several years. The internet has taken over the biz, and it just happens to be the biz that I want to be apart of.

Mom actually talked to a woman today that used to work for the Seattle Times as a photojournalist, and now she has like 3 different houses. So now she’s telling me that I need to take more pictures and make a shit ton of money taking photos.

Or there’s always movies. I could make them. 🙂

Ladyhawke-Paris is Burning

❤ Abby

I’ve completely forgotten to post songs!

I’m dreadfully sorry. I forgot to post my links on the bottom of the last two posts. How retarded of me, since one was just a list of the soundtrack to my yet-to-be-made film.

These first two songs are from Pushing Daisies, and they make me happy. 🙂
Kristin Chenowith-Hopelessly devoted to you
Original Score-Plastic Kiss

And just one more that was on my soundtrack.
The Submarines-Peace and Hate

R.I.P. Pushing Daisies.

❤ Abby

Slumdog FTW

As one who generally believes in fate, I see a purpose to everything that happens in my life. And after seeing Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, I’ve found much more a reason to believe in destiny. Now that I’ve seen this film, I’m promised myself that from now on, I’ll be seeing the Oscar-nominated films for best picture before the awards actually air. That way, I can have an honest opinion.

Now, I haven’t seen any of the other films yet, but from what I witnessed in Slumdog and what I read in reviews of the other films, I have a strong feeling that Boyle’s masterpiece will take home the final prize.

The first thing I noticed about this movie was the exquisite editing, and not just well-crafted editing, but intentional editing that exponentially added to the appeal of the film. When the scenes cut from the game show to the police station to the slums of Mumbai, formerly Bombay, the audience didn’t get confused where the characters were. And all of the jump cuts were incredibly clean, and at the end when we saw exactly all the time sequences catch up with each other, it helped bring the story together without seeming too ostensible.

What else was also ostensible was the love story. The fact that Slumdog carries on across a lifetime, the love story between Latika (the oldest played by Freida Pinto) and Jamal (the oldest played by Dev Patel) was completely believable because you got to see how long their friendship went back – literally back to their childhood; whereas most love stories that say they started back in child just relies on the audience to infer about the long relationship. The young actors who played the various ages of Jamal and Salim did a wonderful job in playing such tragic and complex characters. And as their adult selves, Jamal and Salim were even more tragic. Jamal lived all by himself as a “chaiwalah,” or one that serves tea, and Salim was basically a hit man for one of India’s most prominent crime bosses.

What was tragic was also so beautiful. Jamal, in learning of Latika’s life in danger, went on India’s “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” because “he knew she’d be watching.” And when he came upon those questions, he found that he knew all the answers. All of the horrific things that happened to him all led up to this one moment that he’d been waiting for his entire life. Not for the money, but for Latika to hear him.

Quite enthralled by Patel’s portrayal of oldest Jamal, I went exploring online for further information on him, and his resume was remarkably short for such a promising young actor. Patel’s only substantial item on his acting resume is a character on Britain’s teen drama “Skins,” a series similar to Canada’s “Degrassi.” For how young he is, the way he depicted Jamal was uncanny. There was so much baggage and terrible history in Jamal’s life, and Patel’s vulnerability was very advantageous in this instance.

A.R. Rahman also composed a superb soundtrack, taking help from M.I.A., who have now received an Oscar nomination of there own. The mixture of classic Bollywood and contemporary dance floor beats matched quite well with the non-sequential storyline. My personal favorite was “O…Saya.” It gave a light fun beat to such a tense scene in the film.

With such a sad story came the purely entertainment-oriented addition of the game show. Anil Kapoor played a perfect snarky game show host, and the sequences in which Kapoor and Patel are on the television show, it’s a subtle break from Jamal’s heartbreaking story. And not until the end does the audience find out the full meaning of all the encounters preceding the game show.

I especially liked the sequence during the last question, where Jamal made the decision to phone a friend. I won’t spoil it for you, because I strongly recommend the film to everyone. It kept me on the edge of my seat, not to sound clichéd, but it was a perfect ending to a perfect film.

It was a perfect, not cheesy, believable, and hopeful ending.

If you don’t believe in destiny, Slumdog Millionaire will surely change your mind.

❤ Abby

My Soundtrack

I only have 25 minutes for this, so I didn’t want to rush through a review, so I promise I’ll do it tonight, or tomorrow. I’ll definitely do it tomorrow, since I’ll be puppy-sitting. So I thought I’d post the dream soundtrack of a movie that I might possibly make in the future.

1. The Age Of The Understatement / The Last Shadow Puppets
2. Keep Your Head / The Ting Tings
3. The Magic Position / Patrick Wolf
4. Inaction / We Are Scientists
5. Food Chain / Eric Hutchinson
6. girls who play guitars / Maximo Park
7. Dead Sound / The Raveonettes
8. It’s a Hit / We Are Scientists
9. Incline / Raining Jane
10. Bucky Done Gone / M.I.A.
11. Peace And Hate / The Submarines
12. Ghouls / We Are Scientists
13. Trouble Is A Friend / Lenka
14. nrrrd grrrl / mc chris
15. This Means War / We Are Scientists
16. Typical / Mute Math
17. Hook Up / Katy Perry
18. Evil / Interpol
19. Cape Canaveral / Conor Oberst
20. After Hours / We Are Scientists
21. A Better Son/Daughter / Rilo Kiley

As you can see, there’s lots of WAS. I couldn’t help myself. I had an idea, and I went with it. I, for one, think it’s a little weird that I’d be putting together a soundtrack for a movie that doesn’t exist, and specifically in that order, so then the movie would HAVE TO FIT the soundtrack. I’d like for someone to try to decipher my inferred film. That might be interesting.

❤ Abby

I haven’t gotten around to writing my Slumdog review, cause I’m lazy

And another reason why I’m lazy – I didn’t go to science class this morning because we have a guest speaker coming in, and they are always so droning and boring. I didn’t feel like falling asleep in class. So instead I went to go get coffee and blog.

Yay!

I should have just slept in and told my mom that I didn’t feel good, but there’s no sense in lying. And it’s not like high school where when I wasn’t in class the school called home to notify the parental units. I’m so glad it isn’t like that in college. I’m contemplating not going to Film Directors either, since we’re watching Batman Returns and I’m not incredibly fond of going home at 7 o’clock. I could just rent it and watch it at home, but that costs money, and I like going to that class. I’ll only skip one class today. The one that I don’t really like.

But I have to take it. I might as well get the math-y class done now, so I don’t have to worry about it later. If I’d waited until senior year to take my quantitative and natural world credits, I would have forgotten how to do basic algebra. I’m having a hard time remembering now. Thank god I will never have to do math for my job. No math for me.

Except taxes.

Fuck.

OMG, Flight of the Conchords last night was the FUNNIEST EPISODE EVER. You have to watch it. Or at least search “Sugar lumps Flight of the Conchords” on Youtube.

Ah, fuck it. I’ll just post it here.

My sister had never watched the show for some stupid reason, but she was stuck in front of it last night, as I was recording it and she was recording “The Last Templar,” some TV movie on ABC that was a combination of The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure.

I wish I could be creative enough to write for television. I seriously considered it last night after watching 4 episodes of Pushing Daisies from the first season.

Lee Pace is now my favorite actor. If you haven’t seen Pushing Daisies – shame on you. If you haven’t seen Wonderfalls, well, then you’re with the majority. If you haven’t seen The Fall – you should, because it’s amazing and beautiful. I still would like to see Soldier’s Girl, which Lee played a transgendered woman in it, who had a love affair with a soldier, who then was beaten and killed for their love affair – the soldier was, not the transgendered woman.

Apparently Lee lost 25 lbs for the part, and had his eyebrows groomed, and had to wear prosthetic breasts. It sounds really interesting, and it was made for HBO, which means that it has to be good. ‘Cause HBO trumps all other networks, except maybe Bravo, but they still don’t have to FCC rights to say “fuck” as many times as HBO can.

But here’s another example of Lee.

He’s also played Dick Hickock in “Infamous,” the less movie about Truman Capote, which was released 8 months after “Capote.” A pretty wide, odd range. And I’m pretty sure that he has the most expressive eyes I’ve ever seen. It could be the caterpillars he has above his eyes.

But he’s adorable. And Ned and Chuck are pretty much the best television couple ever. They can’t touch, and yet they are still are in love and work around that huge obstacle. As Chuck said in one particular episode that I can’t remember, “I would kiss you if it wouldn’t kill me.”

It’s so odd out of context, but within the context, it’s freaking adorable. I know I just used the word “adorable” twice in 2 paragraphs, but there’s no other word that I can think of to describe it. Like I said, I’m tired. I didn’t get to bed until 1:40 am. And I woke up at 8. I should have slept in.

Ugh.

I promise to do the “Slumdog Millionaire” review tomorrow. I promise.

Dead Sound by the Raveonettes
That song is one of many that I have composed together to make a soundtrack to the movie that I one day will make. I have 5 WAS songs in it. I’ll post the whole list later.

❤ Abby

I’m totally crushing on Dev Patel

Slumdog Millionaire was absolutely wonderful.

My mom and I have made a pact to from now on, see all the nominees for best picture at the Oscars before they are actually aired, so we can have an honest opinion. She’s already seen Benjamin Button, but I want to see at least two more films before the Oscars in two weeks. Milk and Frost/Nixon. The Reader looks good, but not so much for me. And I only have two weekends left. I’d rather not see two movies in one weekend. That’s like 18 dollars for movies. Unless I see a matinee, which would be a very good idea now that I think of it.

But I was so inspired by this movie, Slumdog Millionaire. As hard as it was to watch some scenes, I couldn’t take my eyes away from the screen. I kept thinking about something bad that I could say about this movie, but I can’t think of anything. I mean, the soundtrack was phenomenal, the story was magical, the editing was fantastic, and Dev Patel was so awesome. This was his first movie.

Seriously.

It really surprised me when I went to IMDB to see what other movies he’s been in, but all I could find was a British version of Degrassi called “Skins.”

This kid is talented, and I can say kid, because he’s still younger than I am by a year. I think I’ll sit and write an official review, one that actually talks about things seriously, without sounding like I’m gushing. Because I’m gushing. It was very nice to go see an actually good movie. I haven’t been to a really good movie since The Dark Knight. The only movies that I’ve seen since then are Twilight and the Spirit. And I don’t think Wall-E counts, since I rented it.

But I highly recommend Slumdog Millionaire. It will make you believe in destiny.

What else happened today?

Oh, I finally got around to seeing Batman, the first one – with Jack Nicholson. I didn’t know how fucked up his character was. Still not quite as fucked up as Heath’s Joker, but still fucked up. It was so Burton though, I could tell. That’s why I watched it. I had to for Film Directors, one of my classes. We’re watching Batman Returns on monday, and Coon told us we should see the first one, although he said that if we didn’t get around to seeing it, “he fights crime, that’s basically what happens.” It was pretty funny.

But what wasn’t funny was the fact that I’m a complete idiot. I put the Batman DVD in today, since I rented it last night, and about ten minutes in – it started skipping hardcore. Like, really hardcore. I couldn’t watch it. And then I started looking online for movie streaming websites, which obviously didn’t have a 20-year-old movie, but I kept looking. I even tried a free trial for Netflix, which I immediately cancelled once I discovered that it didn’t have Batman for instant rental.

I was screwed.

Until I realized that the DVD was dual-sided. I was on the full-screen side. I turned it over to widescreen and it was fine.

Fucking fine. No skipping. Not one little blip. I felt like an idiot.

So I got to watch my movie. And I’ll return it later, and might possibly rent another one, Death at a Funeral to be specific, mostly because a friend recommended it to me. But I have stuff to do tonight and tomorrow, so maybe later.

Here are some songs from the Slumdog soundtrack, which is, like I said, phenomenal.
M.I.A.’s Oscar-nominated song – O….Saya
The awesome song at the end where they all dance a Bollywood dance – Jai Ho, even though my mom still sings it as “Tally Ho!”

❤ Abby

I wonder why the Wonderfalls…

I’ve got to be the laziest person in the whole world. After lost on wednesday…OH MY GOD LOST!

I’m going off on a tangent for a minute.

Lost was fantastic, amazing, fabulous, extraordinary…holy crap it was awesome. When Ben turned the wheel, the island didn’t move in space, it FUCKING MOVED THROUGH TIME. And now it’s skipping! Skipping through time, like a scratched CD. And Hurley’s a fugitive, and pretty crazy. And Kate’ being followed by a lawyer who wants to take her baby away. And Daniel knows what is going on. Daniel, the physicist knows exactly what is going on, and he needs to fix it. So he does, by interfering with the past and talking to Desmond…IN THE PAST. Holy crap it was awesome.

Okay, I’m done with that now.

Back to my laziness. So after Lost was on wednesday, I started watching episodes of this show called Wonderfalls that was on in 2004, and got unjustly cancelled after 5 episodes. I downloaded the whole first season, which in all actuality consisted of 13 episodes. Each episode was about 43 minute without commercials, and I watched 5 episodes wednesday. I meant to go to bed a little after midnight, but I ended up going to bed at 2 am. And yesterday, I couldn’t stop watching the first season. I literally sat and watched episodes 6-13 all of yesterday.

I know that sounds incredibly sad and pathetic, but Wonderfalls was so flipping good. It was made by Bryan Fuller, why made Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies, which also got unjustly cancelled.

Wonderfalls was about Jaye, a 24-year-old with a degree in Philosophy from Brown, but she worked at a gift shop at Niagara Falls. But the catch is that animal faces talk to her. It starts out with a smooshed face wax lion, then some yard flamingos, and a snake on a tee shirts. Basically inanimate animal faces.

Sounds weird, huh? But it’s so freaking cute. And so is Lee Pace, who plays Jaye’s brother Aaron, an athiest theologian. He’s Ned the Pie Maker from Pushing Daisies, in case you didn’t know.

I wish that good shows wouldn’t get cancelled. And shows like Private Practice would.

❤ Abby

1.20.09

Today.

Yes, today.

It was amazing. I honestly started to tear up when Bush left on his “air force one” plane. I wasn’t sure where those tears were coming from, and why they were coming. I thought at that moment, like “what the fuck am I doing? He was the worst president…ever!”

But then I got it.

He was.

He was the worst president ever.

And now that’s behind us. Truly. Seriously. Honest-to-god.

Barack Obama is fucking PRESIDENT!

Holy crap times a thousand!

I literally sat in front of the television for 3 hours watching numerous motorcades in Washington D.C., 2 million people waiting outside the Capitol building, and listening to Brian Williams and Tom Brokaw ramble on about former presidents. Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and W.

I don’t feel like calling him by his whole name just “W.” (Pronounced “dub-ya”).

I found the whole morning broadcast moving and astounding and amazing and historic, and FUCKING AWESOME. Minus Aretha the Hutt and the poet woman with ridiculous enunciation. Seriously, she sounded like a cross between William Shatner and someone who’s really fucking bad at reading a teleprompter. Seriously? Was every word of your poem on a separate line? That’s how bad her rhythm was. Kinda retarded, I know.

But Obama was awesome. And Malia was recording the entire thing on her own camera, like it wouldn’t be available to see on huge screens whenever she wants. I thought it was so fantastic how during the entire ceremony, that all these people had to go into the White House and switch out all Bush’s shit with Obama’s things, like nothing happened. It was like a giant Presidential Extreme Makeover.

American Idol is on, so I shall go. But I’m so freaking excited for Lost tomorrow. Two awesome things in 2 days. Oh, and Flight of the Conchords came back sunday! One great week, I’ll say. Just as long as I didn’t fuck up my homework too much.

❤ Abby

Sorry, y’all

I’ve waited much too long to post this, since it’s been…6 days.

Holy fuck!

It could have been that I’ve had just about the busiest weekend I’ve had in awhile. Well, at least since last layout. Thursday was layout, then I visited my friends down at St. Martins. Friday was layout. And more layout. Saturday was the wedding – I’ll get to that in a minute, and yesterday was layout pretty much all day. All the while, I’ve been trying to do my Energy and Environment homework, which is proving to be almost impossible for me, since I don’t know anything about cars and heat, and fuel, and coal, and energy. And there’s math. Fucking MATH! Ugh. It makes me nuts. I thought we’d be talking about the environment, like in an environmental science class. I didn’t know that I’d be doing a shitload of math. Granted, it really is only algebra, but I haven’t done algebra regularly in a LONG time, and any sort of mathematical equation seems like a hassle to me, and I hate it.

I hate math. With all the fire in my being.

Right, now I’m still in the midst of doing that assignment, as well as this week’s assignment, and a paper for my film director’s class. I’m so glad that class is easy. As well as my Intro to American Politics class. I just have to read stuff. At least for now I do.

Layout kind of pissed me off this weekend, not because we had 12 pages. I liked that we didn’t have to lay out 16 pages. 16 pages between 2 people is kind of annoying. But what pissed me off is that it should be between 3 people. But Alexis and I were the only ones working the whole time. Our other page designer decided to show up for 2 hours yesterday, and that’s been the habit so far. And we get paid the same amount per quarter. I personally don’t think it’s fair, which is why once I figure out how to do my homework, I’ll be teaching myself how to run our damn website, because I’d like to get paid more than someone who doesn’t put the effort in.

I think this issue will look good, only thanks to Alexis and me.

So enough venting for now. I’ll write about the good things about this weekend. Well, there really was only one good thing – Derek and Heidi’s wedding. And I know y’all are reading this right now, and again, I’m sorry I waited until today to write this. And I’m sorry I didn’t stay later than 8:30. I wanted to, but my sister was getting restless and annoying. And I was quite tired.

But from what I experienced, it was the best wedding I’d been to all year. And for most people, that wouldn’t mean much, like “Abby, wasn’t that the ONLY wedding you went to all year?”

Nope. I went to three in the last 7 months. And Derek and Heidi’s far surpassed either of the other two.

First of all – I didn’t have to drive into another state to attend. It was right in town, which was nice, because most people were able to make it, from what I saw. Even Kristine made the day trip to come see Heidi and Derek wed. And it ended up being kind of a hassle for, since she got a flat tire and was stuck in Bellingham until her sister drove her down to the Gig.

It was so nice to see everyone again, all here for one purpose. And it couldn’t have been a more beautiful purpose.

Another reason why this wedding was WAY better than anyone else’s was that we all got to laugh during the ceremony, and on Heidi and Derek’s account. With Heidi’s crumpled up vows shoved in her bra to Derek’s notecards tucked into his black-and-white striped sock, to Thomas sitting next to us asking his grandmother, “who’s that lady?” regarding just about every woman in the ceremony. And when the groomsmen donned their camo bandannas – that was cute. As was the semi-colon. Also, my mom is wondering what the song was that played during the video – she really liked it.

Then Kristine, Libby and I ventured out to Longbranch, and while I was driving, I started to again realize how long it took to get out there. I mean, it took a hella long time. And on the way there, we were following slow people, going about 40 mph. Come on! There are no cops, and the speed limit was 45. Nobody honestly drives the speed limit out that far on the KP. But the Improvement Club looked so pretty. I hadn’t been there for about 3 years, since the last time I was apart of Santa’s workshop with Girl Scouts. Mom and Wendy did such a good job making a blank canvas of a wood building into a reception hall. It was the perfect size. I had wished that someone had cut the string to let down the balloons and Zots in the tied-up sheet above the dance floor. At one point, when Libby and I were dancing right underneath it, I was worried that they’d cut it then, but no one had cut it by the time we left at 8:30.

The food was also another reason why Heidi and Derek’s wedding kicked ass above the other weddings. I won’t name names, but I’d prefer to choose what I put on my plate, and I’d prefer to know what kind of meat I’m eating. Buffet style is the best, by far. And tasty meatballs are always nice. Libby and I couldn’t find anything to drink but alcohol and water though and Libby actually said that the water (which was well water) tasted like blood. It was iron. She hates water by itself anyway, which is bad. I love water. And iron-y water doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

Also, Derek’s brothers Rick and Trevor are pretty much the best toast-givers ever. Nothing too sappy, or pretentious, or drunk, or lame. I thoroughly enjoyed them fighting over who was the “best man.”

And one more reason – music is key. At least for me. That will be the first thing that I take care of at my wedding, in about ten years or so. I’ve been to many weddings, but none of them included the odd, but fantastic mixture of hip-hop, alternative, swing, and Michael Jackson. I don’t like listening to a constant playlist of country-country-80’s hair metal-country-country-slow song. Blah. Blah. Blah. If we can get Vampire Weekend, Britney Spears and T.I. in there, I’m good.

And it was all good. Everything about it. Conga lines, meatballs, mother’s frosted animal cookies, drunken relatives, 62-year-married grandparents, and semi-colons and all. I love you guys.

Now I’m really looking forward to what I can do at my wedding. Whenever it may be.

(Oh, and I’ll be sure to be back tomorrow, cause…uh…IT’S FREAKING INAUGURATION DAY!)

Band of Horses – Marry Song

❤ Abby

I feel like that was a waste of a post earlier

It was terrible. I was cut off by my poli. sci. class in the middle of writing it, so I completely forgot the reason I started writing it when I can back to it later. So I’m not proud of having an incoherent and pointless entry earlier today.

So let’s try this again.

Do you ever have one of those days where you feel like you need to do something? Not on a schedule or a calendar. No, but something totally random and impulsive.

I had one of those nights.

I needed to go return a rented movie to Mark’s Video, but on my way back to my house, I didn’t turn into my neighborhood. I didn’t know where I was going to go. I just called my mom to let her know I’d be a little while. I honestly had no plan to go anywhere. I just knew that I needed to drive somewhere.

And where I ended up driving didn’t make much sense at the time, but now it does. I drove back on 144th, turned left on Crescent Valley, and turned right after the large, brightly lit house and I just kept going. I hadn’t driven back there in two years. Two years ago I drove Kristine home many times from paste-up. And for the most part, they were all at night, commonly at about 2 a.m. But tonight it was about 10:30. I drove by her neighborhood. I drove by a doe on the side of the road, eating some grass. And I drove along all the winding roads. However, the weirdest part was that it was just as foggy as it used to be.

The first time I drove home from her house, I got lost. Or so I thought. I’d never driven back that far on Crescent Valley, and I had no fucking idea where I was going. So I just kept going.

And tonight, I honestly couldn’t remember where I was going either. So I got nervous. I got anxious and doubtful. And my heart started to beat faster. I thought I was lost again.

But something came back to me that told me that I would end up right where I needed to be. Where I’d been many times before.

As ridiculous as this seems, I think I took that drive to realize something. I realized it as I was driving home up Peacock Hill.

I didn’t know where I was. I was scared and nervous and doubtful about where I was going. But something inside my mind was telling me that I knew where I was going. It told me that I was going to end up somewhere familiar. I thought I was lost. But I wasn’t really lost. All of the anxiety and the doubt along the way didn’t matter, because I honestly wasn’t lost. I knew deep down that I would find my way back, and I knew exact how to get there. Whatever was at the end was the only thing that mattered, because I knew I would end up there, even though I was scared out of my mind getting there.

Not to sound overly wise and grandiose, but that’s really how I feel. And for some reason, my weird impulse to drive nowhere gave me a very reflective half-hour drive.

You should try it some time.

My sharing site is down for maintenance, so no download for you! But you got two posts, so don’t complain!

❤ Abby