Rally your troops. Do I have troops? You got your mom, she’s like a fucking battalion

I will get this out of the way right from the start so I don’t have to bring it up later.

I love Demetri Martin, and I’ve been waiting for “Taking Woodstock” since…well, March. I saw the preview and was like OMG I NEED TO SEE THIS MOVIE. And when I saw Ang Lee was directing, I was like HELLS YES. Ang Lee, Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Imelda Staunton and hash brownies, Liev Shreiber as a transvestite, and Dan Fogler as the leader of an uber-hippie theater troupe living in a barn. I knew I was going to like it.

And I was right. Now I REALLY REALLY want to read Eliot Tiber’s book, just to see if Ang Lee stuck to the story, and to get even deeper into the story.

I checked out the Tomatometer for weeks before I went to see it, and the fresh percentage slowly went down from 85% fresh to a mere 50% fresh. But I avoided actually reading the reviews because I didn’t want to be spoiled. But last night I went home and read the reviews to see how my opinion measured up to those of the critics.

And our opinions couldn’t be more wrong.

I will admit, the movie was a little slow in places, especially during the acid-induced haze sequence when Eliot (Demetri Martin) come across two hippies in their van outside the festival (Paul Dano and Kelli Garner). The acid trip went on a little long, but the slow pace is really one of the only bad things I can say about the film. However, I knew going into the movie what Ang Lee’s style is, so I didn’t expect an action-packed, constant ride of laughs and I wasn’t surprised. But there were select times in the film where I did actually laugh out loud – including most of the sequences with the Earth Light players – the eccentric theater troupe living in Eliot’s parents’ barn – with their unshaved pubes and angry naked dancing, towards the beginning of the film during the Bethel Chamber of Commerce meeting, and almost everything including Emile Hirsch and Liev Schreiber’s characters.

That brings me to the main point of this film, and of this review – the characters. “Taking Woodstock” is based on Eliot Tiber’s novel of the same name, about how he inadvertently put on the greatest concert of all time in the middle of the Catskills, in turn, saving his parents’ motel from going bankrupt. This is part of the reason why I want to read the book now, because I desperately want to read about the characters more. The casting was brilliant, and I’m not just saying that because I love Demetri Martin, but even though he isn’t a great actor, he was the right kind of guy for the part. Because he’s not an experienced actor, he doesn’t overpower the better actors, who played the more dynamic characters of the story. Demetri has the everyman appeal, and lets the other characters be in the forefront of why the story is extraordinary. One of those characters being Emile Hirsch, by far one of the best actors of my generation, who plays Billie, a Vietnam vet struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, constantly jumping back and forth between flashbacks of war and the present. That quote I used for the title of this review came from him, when he told Eliot how to take on the cops threatening to shut down the concert. Hirsch has the power to make us laugh, and make us feel so much empathy for Billie.

Another of the more baffling characters is Vilma, the transvestite head of security played by Liev Schreiber. He managed to provide the voice of wisdom for Eliot, while rocking some fantastic threads, and being a completely straight transvestite. And it worked. It surely was a different take on the experienced older person who gives seemingly useless advice, but it somehow all works out. Very refreshing, yet very nostalgic.

But by far my favorite character was Michael Lange, played by Jonathan Groff. Some critics have said that his peace, love, harmony attitude was very cliche 60s ideas, but this film was based on Tiber’s book of the true events, and cliches didn’t become cliches without having truth to them first. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s exactly how it was back then, and that’s how Michael was. He was the only person who was sure that the concert would happen, and happen the way it did. He provided the hope that so many of the other people involved lacked.

The reason why I’m spending so much time on the characters is that it’s what I’m guessing Lee chose to focus on. Demetri’s understated Eliot helped put the focus on the rest of the characters. That’s probably how the real Eliot Tiber wrote it too – not all about himself – about everyone else. As an homage to all the people who struggled to make the greatest concert in history happen the way it did – Max Yasgur (Eugene Levy) who let Woodstock ventures use his cow fields, Michael Lange, the brains of the operation, and all the people who showed up on those three days of music and peace.

That’s the point of the film – to highlight how it happened, and who made it happen – the behind the scenes stuff. The point of the film was not the music itself, which is why the Lee and Danny Elfman, who did the soundtrack, didn’t riddle the film with 60s rock songs and live performances from the historic concert. He didn’t completely omit the music. The score was a departure for Elfman, but it was fantastic. The soundtrack does include select tracks from Canned Heat, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and Crosby, Still and Nash. But that wasn’t the focus. If I wanted to see a 2-hour movie of the concert, I would have watched Michael Wadleigh’s 1970 documentary, “Woodstock.” Why would Lee have made a feature film when there’s a documentary about the same thing? He wouldn’t. Elfman kept the music aspect low-key to keep the focus on why they made the movie in the first place. Because Woodstock wasn’t just about the music – it was about a movement. And the movie is about who made that movement possible.

(So stop ragging on the omission of the music and watch the Woodstock documentary, critics. :/)

Speaking of the documentary – that almost what Lee’s filming reminded me of. The sincerity of the extras and the setting of the film made the film feel so organic, so real. And the multiple frame effect with the boxes made us feel like we were watching the making of it, and my mom said it reminded her of 60s television. She couldn’t pinpoint what exactly it reminded her of, but it was subtle enough without being a pastiche of the films of that time. There was actually one line in particular that jabbed at something specific today. When Max told Eliot about how the neighbors were cashing in on all the visitors, he said, “they’re charging a dollar to use their water.”

“A dollar?”

“A dollar! For water!” And everyone in the theater laughed, including the woman behind us with a ridiculous cackle that sounded too comical to be true.

I dug this movie. I don’t care what the critics say. Well, Roger Ebert agrees with me. And I always liked Roger Ebert. I miss him and Roeper. Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz suck.

So you may listen to me, or maybe you won’t. But just to say, “Taking Woodstock” made me wish I was born 40 years earlier, so I could have experienced the greatest concert that ever was – and not just because of the music.

❤ Abby

removing staples from visqueen and being struck by a wall

Sorry it took me so long to actually write about yesterday. Today just wasn’t a good day. I was in a bad mood. Hormones. Ugh.

But, yesterday was much better than today overall. Besides the fact that I ended up paying $20 for parking because I didn’t realize the parking pay booth didn’t give change.

Well fuck.

I screamed at the machine for a minute, beating it, after making sure no one was around to see me wale on an inanimate object that outsmarted me. That’s the one thing about Seattle I absolutely HATE. You have to pay to park ANYWHERE, except on sundays and holidays. Where does all that parking money go?

Anyway, surprisingly, after I left the house at close to 7:40, I arrived just in time to meet Jamie, the woman in charge of the volunteer program. I’d been told by several people that I’d have to leave by like, 7:15 at the latest. HA! I was very pleased with the lack of traffic. A nice way to start off the day. I walked up to the Center House at the Seattle Center, and it was deserted. It was a really weird to see the place not all dolled up Bumbershoot-like, or at night filled with people and street musicians. But then again, it was 9 am. There were 2 other volunteers waiting with Jamie when I got there – Simon and Breanna. Breanna was the same age as my sister, and Simon was some odd age older than me. I expected there to be more of us, but I was honestly glad there were less of us, because it proved to be a little bit of a chore for the Production team to learn our names. Whatever.

We were working in the Northwest Rooms yesterday, setting up 4 rooms for the art installations. Now I actually have a reason to go visit the art installations – to show Libby, “hey, I fucking helped build those walls, y’all.” However, we didn’t actually start doing anything until 10 am, because the trucks with the palettes of walls came late, and the production team didn’t want to have to direct us showing up which things to take off the trucks and what goes where. It was just easier for them to do that before giving us jobs.

And those jobs included – undoing all the straps on the palettes of walls, ripping off the plastic wrap, and ripping off the visqueen, folding it, and putting it away to be used later. I was in charge of the visqueen with Nein, one of the girls on the team. Yes, her name was Nein. I’ll get to the rest of the awesome names everyone had in a little bit.

And they had awesome names.

But as all this was happening, Breanna was very, very talkative. She was 17 mind you, so naturally, her mouth would run more often than not, but she struck me as one of those girls who overshares. Which she did. Like, she told me all about her job, school, etc. Not that I didn’t want to get to know the fellow volunteers, but I’d hoped that I wasn’t going to be surrounded by people my sister’s age. If I wanted that, I would have stayed home and hung out with Libby all day. Another volunteer came in late – Samantha, another 17-year-old – but she was far closer to me in social styles. She didn’t talk much, just enough to make the day interesting. She’d worked on the Street Team earlier this month for another shift, which is what I wanted to do during Seafair, but all the shifts filled up really fast.

After we removed all the straps, plastic and visqueen, we were to remove all the staples from the wood – which became a much larger task than I’d imagined. I didn’t bother using the wrench, just the staple remover, and I managed to fling the staples halfway across the courtyard half the time, and the rest of the staples just fell to the ground below our feet. Thank god I was wearing good shoes. Didn’t really feel like getting staples in my feet. That would have made the whole day EXPONENTIALLY worse. But I avoided impalement even with the ground riddled with the two-pronged metal fasteners. Once we removed all the staples (or all the ones we could find), it was time to carry all the darn walls inside the different rooms – Lopez-Hidalgo, Shaw, Oly-Orcas, and Rainier. I’ve yet to find out why they’re all named the way they are.

This is where we learned everyone’s names. Seamus, Emer, Elias, Finch, Devo, and Nein. Well, those were the crazy names. There was also Heather, Charlie, Taylor and Tim. But aren’t those AWESOME? It was funny, when Devo told one of the other volunteers in the afternoon shift who Finch was she said, “Finch, like the bird.” Devo seemed to really enjoy my company, as she made lots of conversation with me as we held up walls.

“What do you do when you aren’t volunteering?”

“Oh, I’m a student at UW Tacoma, I work at the newspaper there.”

“Another student! Tim, we’ve got another student. You should take over the Stranger. They need a turnaround. Basically, you could just fire Dan Savage.” And then she make an “ick” face. Tim was also a student, I think at UW Seattle, because he was wearing a UW hat, and working in Seattle, that would make sense. He was the go-to guy on the production team when tallness was needed. Everyone else on the team were about my height or shorter, and Tim was quite tall. I think he was new to the team, as was Devo, mostly because of this:

“To be a part of this team, you need a tattoo. Tim, Taylor and I are still thinking of ours.” Devo told me.

“No, I got mine, it’s right here,” Tim said, and pointed to his lower back. “And I got a butterfly on my ankle.”

“A tramp stamp – you whore!” Devo said.

Conversations were that entertaining all day.

“Charlie’s an intern right?” Finch said.

“Yeah.” Devo replied.

“I want an intern!” Tim shouted.

“Do you want to be an intern?” Devo asked me.

“Right now?” I asked.

“Sure, why not! Tim, there, you’ve got yourself an intern.” She said. Now I think I really want to intern with Bumbershoot next year. Jamie actually told me that they have an online intern for writing stuff – which would a good thing for my comm. major. That reminds me, I have to turn in my major form once classes start. But back to what I was saying – wait, what was I saying?

Oh, weird conversations. This one was my favorite. Not really a conversation, but Devo made me laugh, nonetheless. I was wearing my favorite Threadless tee yesterday, the blue one with an angry kitten catching a huge koi fish. It looks pretty badass. But Devo just kinda stared at it for a second at one point, made a face, looked away, did a double, did a triple take, and then was like, “okay, it is what I think it is.”

“Oh, the cat catching a fish?”

“Yeah. I had a look at it for a minute. Cool shirt, cool shirt.”

It is, isn’t it?

What else? Oh, the walls were fucking heavy. Well, the pink walls weren’t, but needless to say, I didn’t need to work out yesterday at all, and my arms are still sore today. Screw cardio when you got heavy lifting! The walls weren’t pink and blue, by the way, they were just labeled with pink and blue tape to show the pink, single-sided and blue, double-sided walls. The pink walls were a piece of cake to carry, but the blue ones actually strained my arms a bit. It was a nice workout for sure, a nice 8-hour workout. I no doubt build up some muscle yesterday. Nice.

After we brought all the walls and columns into the different rooms, Samantha and I were assigned to the Shaw room with Finch, Devo, Tim, and Elias. It was the smaller room, but just as complicated as Lopez-Hidalgo. We lined all the walls with the pink walls and made an S shape in the middle of the room with the blue walls and the columns helped stabilize the pink walls against the actual walls of the room. The production team would screw the individual pieces together and we’d help them lift them and hold our feet down on the backside to keep them from moving. Then we’d stand there while Tim and Elias screwed the columns to the walls.

We were almost done with one wall, and I was standing the closest to the edge of the piece of wall we were securing at the time, and as it kept shifting when the drill jammed, the column got knocked around without my noticing. I was watching the left side and the column was too my right, and all of a sudden, Elias shouted, I turned just in time to kind of stop it, but not really. The column toppled over on my head, but surprisingly, it wasn’t that heavy and didn’t hurt. Nobody else seemed to believe me that I was fine, but I was, honestly. After I propped it back up, Finch peeked around the corner, “you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” I replied. Tim came around the corner to hold the column in place.

“Are you sure? Where’d it hit you?”

“My head, but it wasn’t very heavy.”

“You didn’t dent it, did you?” And we laughed.

I didn’t dent it, no, and my head was fine. All of this happened in the first four hours. The second shift hadn’t even started yet. Thank god I had an hour break, because I was STARVING. The afternoon shift brought in a few new volunteers, Christopher and Jenny, who were, again, 17. And there was this other guy, who I seemed to have forgotten his name. He was a nice enough guy, and it felt kind of cool that I got to show them the ropes a little bit, as I’d been there all morning. It made me feel more like part of the team.

I’m really excited to go back sunday, and hopefully I’ll be working with the same team, because they were fun. And they made me REALLY want to get a tattoo. Damn immune system. Why do you and my skin have to hate me?

Hopefully I don’t get hit with more falling columns. I don’t need to be concussed during Bumbershoot.

❤ Abby

The Wreckoning of Pop!

popwreckoning

These last few days have been nice. Mostly because I’ve gotten my room cleaned and my car is fixed, but there is another thing that has helped these last few days become much easier to tolerate, being bored and at home and all, before I start volunteering for Bumbershoot tomorrow.

What is that mystical reason why you’re so jolly Abby? You must tell us!

Well.

See this website: http://popwreckoning.com/

Now go to the right side of the page, about halfway down, to the list of POPWRECKERS, underneath the editors and to the list of contributors. I, Abigail Williamson, will soon be on that list.

Yes. I’ve got myself a writing gig. It’s unpaid, which is kind of a buzz kill (or boner killer, as Libby would say) but I will be read. By more people than who reads this measly little blog, or the general population of UWT.

I’ll go through how it happened, because I just love talking about it.

A few weeks ago, I was browsing through craigslist and I clicked on “GIGS” underneath jobs, hoping there would be some way for me to make money, other than dancing in a riskay way in a music video, and I stumbled upon the simple, yet enticing listing for “Music blog needs writers.”

Oh?

So I clicked on it, read through the information, went to the website, and I was intrigued. Seeing that the listing was about a month old, I was a little discouraged, but I emailed the contact anyway. And I went a little overboard with the email. I linked to two articles from the Ledger this year, to this blog, and to my Last.fm profile, just to show them how into music I was, and that I would be a good addition to their Popwreckoning team. My email was really long and extensive, just so I covered all my bases, giving all the information I needed, even adding the fact that I am a photographer as well, with a decent DSLR.

A week passed, and I figured the position had already been filled. Since I followed PopWreckoning on Twitter, and I’d tweeted about my hopes to join the team, they messaged me saying that if I hadn’t heard anything back, I should email the Editor-in-chief. So I did.

Another week passed, and I’d accepted the fact that I wasn’t going to get the gig, but then they messaged me again – “hello! sorry to be so tardy with a reply, but I’m in process of getting back to your email! (Josh & I like you, fyi 🙂 email to come soon!” They liked me. Holy crap. I might get the gig. Wow. Like, um…wow.

Two days ago, that email finally came. I will be writing at least four articles a month – whether they be album reviews, show recaps, features (like Remix Monday or Under Cover), or other neat things I might come up with. AND there are no deadlines. Well, just as long as I don’t take ridiculously long, there are no deadlines.

Oh, and this is the best part, besides getting my name out there as a part of something other than a school paper – we get press rights. Well, for the most part. Some shows may be more selective than others, but there is a possibility that I could get a photo pass for Bumbershoot. I doubt it will happen, but if I had emailed them a long time ago, and sent in a form for photo passes for Bumbershoot before August 1st, I would have gotten press rights.

For real.

AND. With those press rights, I could get into shows – FOR FREE – with press tickets. To write about them, which is what I would have done either way, but this way, I do this for a “job.” So I don’t technically get paid, but getting into shows for free is fine enough for me. This will go on my resume, and if this could help me get a good internship in a year for comm. credit, and give me a leg up on the competition in this especially competitive field right now, I’m down.

I’m SO down.

So as soon as I get my first assignment, I’ll be back here letting EVERYONE know where to go to find it. And who knows, maybe Bumbershoot will be my first piece.

Good lord, I’m excited.

<3<3<3 Abby

“Where the fuck is my Tambourine?”

I’m going to halt from talking about the UWT Leadership Retreat for a bit, because honestly, last night was way crazier.

That’s Demetri Martin up there. He’s a person. And Libby and I went and saw his comedy show last night at the Moore. But it took us quite a lot to get there.

After getting home from the retreat, Mom and Libby and I bolted over to Grandma’s so I could take a shower and Mom and Dad could meet up to go to the Seahawks game. Oh, thank god they were in Seattle.

We got going right on time to our night of hilarity. It was about 7:30, and we were on Second Ave. but as we were turning on to Virginia Street – I shit you not – my car died. Like, right as I turned the corner, and stepping on the brakes a bit, it stalled, then died. I could see the Moore in front of us. Literally, it was like 200 yards away. The parking lot was…maybe 50 yards away. People started honking, but it was a one-way street, so we were lucky at least in that. Libby got out and told people to go around, because my emergency lights wouldn’t go on. We sat there for a minute, I’m freaking out, and then a few guys and this girl with pink hair helped us parallel park by pushing. Seriously. My power steering was dead, so it was really hard to turn the wheel, but we actually got it out of the road, with the help of these great people randomly on the street. One of the guys actually was at the Demetri Martin show and we saw him leaving right as we did. But as we were almost into the non parking spot, a cop pulled up behind us, and told us that he wouldn’t get us towed, because we were in a bit of a jam. But he told us that someone would eventually tow us, because we were in a no parking zone.

This is where Mom and Dad came in handy. Since Libby didn’t answer her phone, Mom and Dad drove down to the Moore to see what was up, because they’re that weird. It was 20 ’til 8 o’clock, and I was starting to think that we weren’t going to be able to go to our show, and I was really starting to freak out. Once the parentals arrived, we jumped it, and Mom and Dad told us to go to the show. Little did we know, once they got my car started again, it went merely 20 yards up the hill. Dad had to call our AAA tow truck, and they couldn’t leave the car alone, or else it would have been towed. So Mom and Dad didn’t get to go to the Seahawks game.

Thank god I didn’t know that while I was in the show, or else it would have made me feel REALLY REALLY fucking guilty. I mean, I still feel kind of guilty right now, but at least I got to enjoy the comedy show.

And it was PERFECT.

We had the same view as that photo up there ^^^^ I haven’t uploaded my pics and video because I was too tired to go find the camera cord for the new Coolpix. I’ll upload them as soon as I find the cord.

Demetri had everything from the Large Pad to the keyboard, his guitar, his harmonica, more drawings and the laser pointer, and a new part of the act that was so freaking funny. Demetri painted an army man, set him on a stool, mic’d him, and “interviewed” him by stepping on and off a voice changer to basically talk to himself. What was so perfect was the high voice his tiny man had. And his shoe had a very deep voice.

“Hey man, can you not take me off using Steve?”

“Steve?”

“Yeah, Steve, the other shoe. You just did it on stage, his face goes right into my ass.”

“I’m sorry, man. I’ll try not to do that anymore.”

“Cause we gotta hang out, like, all the time. It gets awkward.”

And picture the shoe talking in a REALLY REALLY low voice.

And speaking of awkward – Demetri did a great song about ways to end an awkward silence.

Jazz hands.

Wicka wicka wicka.

Awk-ward si-lence. CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP.

Shhh….shhh… and you touch their lips.

Those are just a few, but there were many more. I just can’t remember them at the moment. My favorite part, actually, was the random banter with the audience in the front. There was this girl celebrating her Sweet Sixteen right in front. “Happy Sweet Sixteen, how old are you?” He asked. And at one point, that same girl shouted out, “do you want to go into the bathroom with me after the show?”

“A sixteen-year-old is asking me to go to the bathroom with her.”

“There’s a keg by it.”

“There’s a keg in the bathroom?”

“No, outside the bathroom.”

“Well, that’s a good way to remind people that they have to go to the bathroom. ‘Oh look, here’s a keg…fuck I have to pee.”

And there was a woman who brought her 6-year-old to the show, Rhiannon. I’m just guessing how to spell that. It didn’t seem to stop Demetri from swearing though. It was weird hearing him swear, because he always kept it clean on Comedy Central specials and on the CD.

Speaking of swearing, that quote I used for my headline was in the encore. Demetri was talking about a point in your life when a sentence that comes out of your mouth that sums up exactly where you are in your life. And his was in his New York apartment a few years ago – “Where the fuck is my tambourine?”

Apparently he needed a tambourine.

The encore was my favorite part though, because he was taking requests for “oldies but goodies,” and just random questions. Some girl asked him to marry her, people asked a lot about the movie, Taking Woodstock, which comes out on friday, and about “Important Things,” which isn’t going to air until next spring.

However, the last two questions were asked in perfect unison from two opposite ends of the theater, which is HELLA tall, BTW. We were in the first balcony, and we already thought we were high up. The second balcony must have been in the fucking ceiling.

“What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?”

“Where are you staying tonight?”

“My favorite flavor of ice cream is the Four Seasons.”

So funny, and so worth the frustration of a dying car battery. I was just kind of pissed that we had to leave right away afterwards, and I REALLY wanted to stand outside the theater and see if he would come out and take pictures with people. After Lindsay and I missed out on that at the Flight of the Conchords show in May, I didn’t want to miss out on it for Demetri. But sadly, my car wanted me to miss out.

Oh well, Demetri was amazing. Libby and I had a blast…ladies.

Hehe.

❤ Abby

so I’m either broke or dead. those are my options, GOP.

I’m going to talk about politics. I don’t like to often, seeing that things have gone my way for the most part (except of course that beef I have with California) so far in the last year, and I don’t want to jinx the great streak our dear Pres has right now.

But I was at the gym tonight, watching “Hardball” on MSNBC, even though I’m not a huge fan of Chris Matthews. He was on after Rachel Maddow, so I didn’t bother changing the channel. The entire show tonight was about Healthcare reform, and the public’s opinion of Obama’s bill, the language, the consequences, yadda yadda yadda.

I’ve been on Obama’s side the entire time with his government-run healthcare program. Right now, it wouldn’t affect me either way, because my Dad has the best healthcare plan I can think of. He’s been with Boeing for 30 years, and I think that with our middle-class lifestyle, we’re pretty well-off when it comes to Dad’s insurance benefits. If we didn’t have Dad’s insurance, we’d be broke. Seriously, or at least we’d be in trouble of being broke. For one thing – my father has sleep apnea, my mom has had ankle surgery after ankle surgery, and then a blood-clot, which left her on coumadin (blood thinners) for a year. And then there’s me. I not only was on topical steroids for years for “psoriasis,” I had braces for five, a palette expander for 2, and now I’m on some of the most intensive drugs you can get. It doesn’t hurt that my disease affects under 1 in 20,000 people in the US. Being rare, it’s hard to get treatment that is widely accepted by insurance companies. Once every two months I get pumped full of immunoglobulin, or IV/IG for short. It’s REALLY expensive. I mean, that’s the drug that would make us broke if we didn’t have good insurance. Prednisone is more prominent, so it’s not as hard to get covered. Then there’s the methotrexate, which in itself, is a form of chemotherapy. It sucks, because it makes me nauseated and gives me headaches, but without it, I don’t know what my muscles would do.

And just in case you were wondering, I was LUCKY last time that my disease didn’t affect my heart, because it is a muscle too, after all.

Bringing that all back to healthcare – I’m grateful. I’m lucky. We’re lucky. But sadly enough, the job I’m going for is kind of in the balance right now. I don’t know where my “job” will be in a couple years when I graduate. And if I’m not in school, I don’t stay on my parent’s plan, and if I don’t have a job, I don’t have money. And if I don’t have money, I don’t have insurance. And you see the dreaded cycle. Without insurance, I don’t have medications. And then I get back to an unhealthy and sickly weight, with a layer of skin peeling off a day. Basically, I’d waste away. At least it could happen. We don’t know that for sure. But with healthcare, we don’t have to worry about that.

HERE ARE THE FACTS, because I don’t feel like explaining it here, because that isn’t what I do.

So without this government-run healthcare, I’m screwed. Even if I get a job, it won’t have nearly the amount of insurance I’d need to cover my medical expenses. And I’d go broke, having to live off welfare, while I have a job. And in turn, you’d be paying for welfare, which is a government agency. So all you people who are opposed to a universal healthcare, PLEASE change your mind, because you either pay for our healthcare now before we get sick, or you pay for us to live after we go broke.

Either way, you’re not going to be happy. Obama’s not trying to kill old people. But to be honest, I wouldn’t mind if he was. It would just make societal progression go so much faster. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but people aren’t happy with our healthcare system right now. And they’re not happy with the plan Obama has to fix it. Why should they be? There are plenty of other countries with universal healthcare that run smoothly and harmoniously.

Like I said before, I’m moving to Sweden RIGHT NOW.

They have hot Nordic Adonises AND public healthcare.

I mean, good god.

PLEASE.

Watch these:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-april-21-2009/the-stockholm-syndrome-pt–1
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-april-22-2009/the-stockholm-syndrome-pt–2

❤ Abby

I have a genius idea

The other day, I was watching this clip on The Soup with Joel McHale of the Teen Choice Awards, and I was disgusted. Utterly ashamed that I have to call myself an American.

Really. This actually happened. Now, I’ve always been appalled at how ridiculously famous Miley Cyrus has become, merely because I’m older now and don’t “get” Disney stars anymore. But this clip, honest-to-god, made me miss Lizzie McGuire. I swear. I miss old school Hilary Duff. This made me miss the lame straight-to-video movies the Olsen Twins spit out once a year, and it made me miss freaking Even Stevens for god’s sakes. Kids shows now are even more shallow than they used to be.

Oh, and Miley Cyrus is SUCH a great role model.

WTF?

Okay, so she wasn’t “pole dancing” per say, but it was a freaking stripper pole. And short shorts, and a prop trailer park trailer. Like, really? Really Teen Choice Awards? What are parents going to think when their 12-year-old daughters come up to them and ask to get some short shorts like Miley and dance around a pole? You should be ashamed of yourselves, Cyruses.

And all of this while singing a song called “Party in the USA?” Wow. But to be honest, it’s a pretty accurate depiction of the lesser portion of American culture, not to be a utter snob, but be real people.

But what does all of this have to do with anything?

Well, after I saw this clip, along with a few other things in the media this week that have baffled me – I thought, “what would Spock say about this?”

And then it came to me, not to sound cliche, but to start another blog AS Spock. I’ll have to brush up on some old school Star Trek, but I think it might be fun to have a blog entirely from Spock’s point of view, critiquing the illogicality of American society, as opposed to Vulcan. I’d have to throw my own voice out the door, and adopt Spock’s…interesting way of thinking, and the Vulcan morals and beliefs.

Hehe. I’m actually really excited about this. It may take awhile, but it will inevitably happen.

❤ Abby

And…I’m moving to Sweden RIGHT NOW.

I posted something recently expressing my newfound guilty pleasure in True Blood.

And I must tell you, it has only gotten STRONGER. Holy crap this show is awesome. I literally finished the rest of season 1 one on tuesday night, and didn’t go to bed until 3 am the next morning. The next day, wednesday, I watched the first four episodes of season 2, and thursday, episodes 5-8. For me, it’s almost better to wait until the end to watch all the episodes in one shot, so it feels like one super long movie.

What’s so awesome about season 2 – well, there are a few things, but I’ll get to Alexander Skarsgard, or ASkars as he’s affectionately called on ONTD and other blogs, later. I love that the story keeps getting stranger and stranger. First season – you have vampires and Sookie’s telepath-ness, and this season, we find out for sure that Sam is a shapeshifter…and then there’s Maryann. Ooooo, do I hate Maryann. She’s a maenad, which in laymen’s terms means that which brings out the evil in everyone – anger, greed, violence, and lust. It was actually really awkward as I was watching one of the episodes onDemand where Maryann was having one of her crazy black-eyed orgies with all the people of Bon Temps, and my Dad walked downstairs. Yeah…Maryann makes people black out, get wasted, sodomize trees, and beat up their mommas. I just wish that people would get a clue about Maryann. No one but Sam and Andy have seemed to figure out that Maryann is BAD.

Urgh.

But the real reason I wrote this post – ASkars.

Look at this man.

I know I said before that BILL was the best vampire ever. I stand corrected. I should have watched season 2 before making that statement, because Eric Northman, ASkars character, is SOOOO much better. I sound like a silly pop culture fanwhore, but I’m fine with that.

I actually just stumbled upon a post on ONTD where they listed the hottest vamps in pop culture, and for some ridiculous reason, Robert Pattinson has almost half of the votes, where the sexy Nordic Adonis has a mere 20%. Sad face. I’m just glad that people appreciate stories about real vampires, not like vampires exist, but vampires based on old myths, that kill people, and burn in the sun, and apparently have magic vampire Viagra that makes human libidos go crazy. Rather than stories about vampires trying to hide the fact that they’re vampires, who refrain from biting people, and don’t sleep in coffins or in the basement during the day. If I’m going to get into a vampire story, I want the vampires to be vampire-y.

I prefer slutty, 1000-year-old Viking vampires to angsty, teenage ones who wear pea coats and have bouffants.

That’s all I’m saying.

I mean, he’s damn hot.

❤ Abby

Just some guy she met at the gym with Brad Pitt’s face and Jesus’ abs.

I’m just going to tell you upfront, this is a review.

When I walked into the Grand Cinema last night, I was embarking into a whole package – a small, independently-owned, volunteer-run theater in the heart of downtown Tacoma, with tickets $3 less than the chain theaters, and movies you can’t see anywhere suburban unless you drive an hour to Seattle to one of the cinemas in the city. I’d never been to the Grand, but I will for sure be going back, hopefully soon to see “Moon.” But that’s beside the point.

The movie I went last night to see was (500) Days of Summer, the sweetheart of this year’s Sundance, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom Hansen and Zooey Deschanel as Summer Finn. I went to this movie having no expectations, because from what I’d heard from friends were completely different from what I’d seen in the previews, which were also different from what I got from the reviews of the film.

I must say, this non-love story was the most refreshing film I’ve seen in a long time. I, for one, have been sick and tired of cheesy, predictable romantic comedies that stick to the same damn formula. (Insert Katherine Heigl as the unlikely girl who can’t get a boyfriend even though she’s like the perfect specimen of modern women…It’s bullshit.) I thoroughly enjoyed Summer, mostly because it felt real. The way the writers and editors put together the story gave the viewer similar emotions one would go through in a real relationship – the initial curiosity, lovey-dovey giddiness, a feeling of stasis, the first pitfall, and I will leave it at that for now.

I’ve read other reviews that found the jumping back and forth from the (day 7) to (day 240) and the like to be speedbumping the film, but that was the way the director separated it from other romantic comedies – I mean, who always wants linear stories? I know I don’t. Some of my favorite books aren’t linear. They jump. Our psyche jumps into the past sometimes, and Summer matched Tom’s psyche in the course of his relationship. The jumping worked. At one point during the film, I had an idea of where it was going, but in my mind I was like, maybe they’re just messing with us. Maybe it will be a happy ending. Come on Summer, stop being a bitch. But now that I think about it, I feel the same way about romantic comedies that Tom felt about greeting cards. They lie. They give people unreal expectations and take these unbelievable scenarios (oh yeah, Katherine Heigl as the dowdy older sister to Malin Akerman. Sure, okay.) and shove them in people’s faces on the big screen. Summer told the truth.

Of the two leads, Tom was by far the more appealing. I may have a gender bias, but the film was from his point of view, which is obvious, seeing that most of Summer’s inner workings were left out of the storyline. We didn’t get to see why Summer was the way she was. And I think the director meant to do that on purpose so that the ending would be more unexpected. And besides, Tom could never really get into Summer’s head as much as he’d wanted to – so why should the audience get to?

I cannot leave out the sheer cuteness factor of the movie. At times, it did seem so sugary sweet I felt a cavity coming on, but again, I think that was a reflection of Tom’s emotions towards Summer. And never have I laughed so hard at the word penis. That gets to be a mystery for all of you until you see the movie. It’s just funny. But for me, Summer wasn’t all that great, but that could just be because I’m a girl. And not to be brash, but I think Zooey Deschanel is overrated. Between her and JGL, he’s a much better actor. She’s been pigeon-holed into the same roles each time, and that always bothers me when people play the same character in several movies.

I had mixed feelings about the use of music in the film. The soundtrack is awesome. You have The Smiths, Regina Spektor, Feist and Hall & Oates for crying out loud. The songs they chose for the pivotal scenes worked perfectly, especially Wolfmother’s “Vagabond” towards the end of the film. Watch out for that one – it’s good. Also, of course after Tom and Summer have sex for the first time – cue “You Make My Dreams Come True.” The theater could not stop laughing during that sequence, as Tom skips and dances his way down the street from joy, high-fiving every person along the way. The cuteness was so apparent there, that’s why it was funny. But when Summer and Tom first meet, and Tom is listening to the Smiths, and Summer is all “I love the Smiths,” and she starts singing, it was the equivalent to the director poking at anyone who doesn’t know how awesome the Smiths are being like, “Ha, I have a way better taste in music than you do. Boo on you.” It wasn’t quite a ostentatious as Juno, but uber self-aware musical references just erk me. I’m not against using the Smiths in the movie, because they fit great, but don’t blatantly point it out to the audience. But I loved the Graduate references, probably because it’s one of my favorite movies of all time.

Speaking of music – JGL can sing. During the various karaoke scenes, he was supposed to be drunk, sure, but his voice is actually quite good. And on a sad note, he’s reminding me more and more of Heath Ledger all the time. If you put an accent on him, he’d sound like Heath, and he has the same smiley eyes and pronounced jaw as Heath. I know that has nothing to do with the movie, but I just had to mention that.

I mean, they look alike.

Back to an actually relevant point. Tom’s friends were perfectly cast. Geoffrey Arend and Matthew Gray Gubler weren’t too bland, but not so over-the-top that they didn’t feel real. I mean, you have the married friend, and the one who’s perpetually unlucky in relationships. We all have those friends. And their presence added a needed comedic quality to certain scenes that would have otherwise relentlessly dragged on.

To sum it up, this movie made me feel warm and fuzzy, laugh aloud in the theater, and almost cry within the span of (500) days, or 95 minutes to be literal. I’m pretty sure most people have had that relationship at least once in their life.

No wonder (500) Day of Summer was Sundance’s sweetheart.

(P.S. Tom’s 12-year-old sister said that quote I used for the blog title. Haha.)

❤ Abby

there’s a bright pink bookmark in my interwebs

Do you know what’s cool?

Well, people who aren’t computer or music nerds wouldn’t find this especially cool, but since I am – I find it cool.

I am apart of an elite group of people called “WAS fans.” We all have a shared love for the band We Are Scientists.

Otherwise known as these guys >>>>>

We don’t just love WAS, but with that thread of one band comes a larger common bond – music in general. While my friends have worked 24/7 or taken extravagant trips across the country, sitting at home not being a consumer all summer has become far less excruciating knowing that on the inside of my computer there’s a small community that I can talk to at any time of day. Because we come from all over the world – Washington, California, New York, Alaska, Scotland, Germany, Austria, and England – time zones are no match for us.

Twitter has been the main outlet for our ramblings about everything from WAS to Franz Ferdinand to Harry Potter to American Idol and beyond. The Sci-Cave forums and What’s the Word have also been a place for the long, continent-spanning conversations. I’m not sure why this is such a big deal, but before last year, I didn’t have “friends” all across the world who I knew liked the same things as I did.

And I’d just like to express my appreciation for the fellow members of The Sci-Cave, who love Keith and Chris even more than I do. I honestly don’t think I would have gotten into as many bands as I have without connecting through twitter, last.fm, and the other social networks that I’ve become accustomed to. I actually counted the other day because my mom was wondering who I was referring to in random fits of laughter after reading things online, and I counted that there are about 16 people that follow me on twitter and whom I follow as well, from finding out that we all love one band – We Are Scientists.

Specifically, the title of this post is from a Frightened Rabbit song, another band I just got into, thanks to this common musical bond.

The first We Are Scientists video I ever saw was “It’s a Hit.” I was browsing through the Music Choice videos on demand, and I thought their band name was witty, so I watched it. And I didn’t really think anything of it at the time. I downloaded some songs on limewire before my computer died, and I had this hodgepodge mix of With Love and Squalor, only with older versions of the songs, and out of order. I still have that CD somewhere in my room. “Lousy Reputation” is the first song on it, so for the longest time, I thought that’s what order the songs were supposed to be in. But then I think it was around last February when I rediscovered how much I loved this band. I was on the Lonely Island’s Youtube page, and I saw “After Hours” listed under their videos. I was like, “hey, I know this band.” And I watched it. And I downloaded With Love and Squalor again, and listened to it. Again. And again.

And then I saw WAS play last summer. Thirteen months ago to be exact. It was July 9th. I skipped my English 101 class I had to make up once I found out that UWT didn’t take the score of 3 on the AP test. It took my sister and I weeks before we convinced my mom to let us go. She wasn’t going to let us. Libby had volleyball the next day – early, and Mom didn’t want me to skip class. Literally, it was the day of the show and she finally gave in.

I’m so freaking glad she gave in.

If she hadn’t given in, I would have never seen the Morning Benders, which is now one of my other favorite bands, and I would never have experienced such an amazing, intimate show – full of dancing, low lights, loud music, no air conditioning, and Keith bounding into the crowd right where I was standing.

And I never would have not cut in front of Adrian in line outside Neumos.

And then I never would have mentioned it on this very blog, sending it to Renee at What’s the Word for other WAS fans to read, and no one else would have read it.

And…I’m not going to say “the rest in history” because that would be the worst cliche ever.

So I’ll just leave it at

And…

Oh, but I must express my utter joy with the prospect of a new album. Cause uh… NEW SONGS!

I’m digging them all. I’m just upset that there isn’t more of “Nice Guys.”

❤ Abby

Pandas are bomb-diggity

❤

Sooo….by now, most people would get how much I've been utterly obsessed with Animal Collective this summer. After catching a half hour of their set at Sasquatch, I fell in love with their sound, their energy, the crowd, and the voice of Panda Bear.

That dude, up there ^.

Today, Animal Collective played at Lollapalooza in Chicago, and because the internet is awesome, I watched the live webcast of their show, and it was A-MAZING. Okay, so not quite as amazing as seeing them live at the Gorge, but the cool thing about the webcast was that the camera panned across the stage from Geologist, Avey Tare, and Panda Bear so we could see them up close. I mean, when we saw them at Sasquatch, all I could see was Avey Tare's goofy bucket hat and Panda Bear's head just swaying with the beat.

But seeing them up close as they were performing was a completely different experience.

And I must say – I love Panda Bear. I was listening to Person Pitch, Panda Bear's second solo album, and it's an almost explicable album. Like one that has no genre, that makes you feel all different kinds of stuff, like the soundtrack to a drug-induced haze, but you don't know what drug you're on. But at the same time, you feel like you're a kid running through cold sprinklers in the sweltering heat, or riding the merry-go-round, dizzying but exciting.

I think I've made enough analogies.

You get the picture.

Watch the videos. WATCH THEM. Avey Tare is so spazmatic, which is a nice counter to Panda Bear’s utter chillness while being completely engrossing.

I actually just read a perfect comment on the bottom of the second video, Youtube user danforealz said “i just get a orgasm in my brain when i listen to Animal Collective… i guess thats how i can best describe what i feel when i listen to them…”

I guess you could say that, yeah.

If I ever make a movie, or at least act as music supervisor for a good one (which would be awesome, right?) I will hire Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) to provide the most amazing soundtrack. Right? Would it be fan-fucking-tastic?

I believe that it would.

I think that’s enough gushing for now. But seriously, if they could back anytime soon, I will be jumping at the first chance to get tickets.

❤ Abby