Ghosts N Stuff

you feel so fake but look so real, met the devil made the deal

2009-11-29T21:17:02Z

Since we are dealing with something as silly and pleasantly overdone as VAMPIRE LORE (to be always capitalized, as one does), I do not feel like it's a cop out to compare the three currently serving themselves up. ERGO, HERE IS THE EQUATION, or, if I'm remembering my high school math correctly, it's not an equation, because there is no equals sign. What is the word for this, IDK, but here is the set up:

TRUE BLOOD > VAMPIRE DIARIES > TWILIGHT, and also I am lazy but you could draw a venn diagram and TB and Twilight would be the two circles and VD would be the overlap. They're really making it easy for us with this trend, everything can be compared so neatly.

THE VERY SIMPLE REASONS TRUE BLOOD WILL ALWAYS BE SUPERIOR ARE:
1) Alex Skarsgard
2) It is HBO, thus
a) you can say fuck.
b) you can fuck.

(also minor superiority reason = vampires making themselves known to humans thus allowing for them to feed on them with their consent. And the blood sucking wounds look more glamorous and less painful on TB, on VD they look really fucked up, sry2say. This makes me less excited for Stefan to drink E's blood, and he probably won't even because He Don't Play That...:(...)

Basically Vampire Diaries is all the good and fun stuff in Twilight without the bad parts like creepily depicted chastity and shamefully written heroines. Also you don't have to look at Rob Pattinson's face, so, really we are talking marked improvement (sorry if you like him, I just can't do it). The other thing about it though that separates it from both TB and Twilight is that it is formed from the teen soap mold, so we're operating under two contemporary cliches: VAMPIRE LORE and Teenagers On TV. In some ways the two end up negating each other and this show turns out some of the most refreshingly genuine scenes I've seen on any show this season. That was what drew me in. I watched the pilot and my response was a WTF IS THIS SHIT, PEACE, and dropped it. But if the internet has taught me anything it is that slowdescent_ is always right (with the exception of the single thing we disagree on, and of course I believe I am on the proper side there), and she posted about VD the other day using some very funny (I thought) phrasing and so I went to download it and watched it all in two days and here I am, writing this run on sentence about Jess being consistently awesome with her recs (srsly: Doctor Who, Sons Of Anarchy, VD) and feeling TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH PAUL WESLEY'S CUT FROM MARBLE FACE AND PHYSIQUE. I just really love vampires, I have come to realize. And quiet moments. There are a lot of those on this show, despite it's loyalty to EXCITING PLOTS. There are so many EXCITING PLOTS, and there is so much more they can do, too! I'm excited. It doesn't come back until Jan. 21 though, sad.

Here are some of my favorite scenes, basically a visual timeline of how I got hooked on the show. It's really beautiful, such a bonus:

Oh and here is a song i was listening to while I made this and feel is appropriate:
Amanda Blank - Shame On Me (ChewFu Remix)

Elena is a good character, I am v. pleased. I think they do a good job of mixing her ongoing grief over her parents (of course there are like, NO parents on this show, taking that trope to extremes, w/e) and her willingness to move on and find joy in the smaller things. Also I feel like a lot of times lately teen girls on popular TV/in books are either totally weak and stupid i.e. Bella Swan or really obvious about how independent they are which makes them almost as bad in terms of writing. Elena is just a girl, which is cool. I don't get the sense that she needs dudes, she just likes them, and they do a good job of balancing her OMG BOYZZZZ plots with really solid girl friendship time. They also give her a bunch of moments like these caps above where she catapults around the Surprise Joy Scale from mild delight to OMG REALLY?! ALSO STEFAN IS REALLY CUTE WHEN SHE DOES THIS, IN THIS REALLY CALM WAY. This is the best thing about Stefan, he is super calm basically always.

WAIT SEPARATE PARAGRAPH ABOUT THAT ACTUALLY: Discounting Skarsgard who is so perfect in his portrayal of a vampire that he cannot be compared to anyone else because it will become embarrassing, I am really into how Paul Wesley does it. Unlike Pattinson who is SO ASTONISHINGLY BAD, Stefan is a very appealing mix of stillness, the confidence of years, and what I think is an appropriate acceptance of his "predicament." Instead of that self-loathing literal-moaning stuff Pattinson does, Stefan is more like the book version of Edward Cullen, in that he is actually charming and willing to have a sense of humor about VAMPIRE LORE. I really like him.

OH OK LOOK AT THIS. This is the person I call JANK SARACEN. JANK SARACEN is basically poor man's Matt Saracen in both looks and personality. He is such a good guy you guys, I was really surprised with the way they designed this character. At first I thought he was a jock douche but he's actually SUPER, super sweet and caring and he tries so hard to be a good person. Actually his name is Matt too. I like this thing with Caroline that's developing btw. "You're not a kiddie pool," hee! And an example of that unexpected genuine quality of certain scenes I was mentioning earlier is that darling awkward scene with him and Caroline where he was like "...I went out your window because I didn't want your mom to see me at 6:30 in the morning, and "hey" is what I've said to you every day of school since sixth grade." All of the dialogue in that scene was really well written and acted.

This was the hottest scene of the season by faaaah, and probably because it was a fantasy dream so they could both be like, more aggressive than they were still being in real life at the time.

This is from 1.04 and where I got HOOOOOOKED. The writers decided to go all Joe Wright and make a whole deal out of ARM SKIMMING. YESSSSS VICTORY FOR SUBTLE TOUCHING ENTHUSIASTS. Also I felt Elena appreciated it in the proper way, A+ Elena.

I loathed Damon until he stopped trying to ruin Stefan/Elena (this is like during OC Season 1 when I hated anyone who tried to fuck with Ryan/Marissa. HAHA, wtf at my past self.). But oooooooh, he was so funny with Caroline and this scene was gorgeous and creepy.

UM GUYS UM GUYS, SO GOOD, IDEK, when he's laughing and then gets serious with that ~PIERCING GAZE~ and then goes all ARE YOU KIDDING I LOVE GARLIC and it feels weirdly EPIC?!

This is where if I felt equipped we could attempt to have a discussion on what VAMPIRE LORE does to your sense of what is erotic and whether that indicates that your base desires are 1) WRONG, with respect to basic human rights 2) DEPRAVED. OMG WHEN HE TRAPPED HER AGAINST THE WALL GUYS, IIIIIIIIII HAD A LITTLE FREAKOUT OF JOY. There is something about super super good guys going a little mean that really gets me. He wasn't even being mean, just forceful and desperate, but STILL IT WAS SO AWESOME. But seriously what did he think was going to happen, SHE HAD TO FIND OUT. I like the way she deals with it too, it's a good parallel to basic adolescent confusion.

I didn't have any particular feelings on Vicki but I have very particular feelings about jumping on beds so OMG THIS ENTIRE SEQUENCE, I am so glad vampires get drunk on this show.

MY FAVORITE SCENE:

legit, I cried.

HERE IS WHY IT IS SO AWESOME: Elena is having a bad few days what with discovering her bf is a vampire and Vicki dying in this creepy way, so she's all sad and lying around in her bed and BONNIE MY FAVORITE CHARACTER OMG BONNIE ILUILUILU comes over and is all "sorry I'm a shit friend I have been BECOMING SOMETHING," and Elena is all "I. am. so. sad, I need to just talk about something nice and distracting." Which is the main reason this scene is absolutely brilliant: it is played as this joyous thing to be celebrated, instead of ~creepy foreboding OMGWTF magic~. In this midst of the crazy angst fest that is 1.06-1.09, this scene is a really delicate light source that is wonderful not only in juxtaposition with these really dramatic scenes, but on its own, as a depiction of a secret being revealed and the trust and love BFFs have in and for each other. What a wonderful, subtle, truly magical scene, my favorite of the series so far by far. And the music was perfect, so there was that too.

That scene is also in my favorite episode with a character I am DEVASTATED they killed off even though it helped the plot along. RIP LEXIE MY FAIR MAIDEN. Omg guys she was so awesome and she and Stefan were a perfect platonic boy/girl friendship that you never see enough on TV and she told awesome stories like the time they got drunk and dove off the Statue of Liberty (OMG PLEASE MAKE STEFAN LIKE THIS AGAIN, I know he is all contemplative and mysterious for the early parts of the show but can we loosen him up Ryan-Atwood-Character-Growth style?) and told Elena she needed to go for it with him and was generally so fierce and smart and great and I am so sad we only had one episode with her.

Also Stefan was like at his cutest ever when he was trying to get Elena to come to the party and he was all HERE ARE SOME REASONS and she was like 'sry but no' and then he all quietly said it was his birthday and !!!!!!!!!! ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY TWO, DAMN.

No seriously he actually looks like a marble statue. I see a lot of buff dudes on TV/film but I feel like they're not usually this hard. Everything is so sculpted on PW's chest, damn.

to quote slowdescent_: OMG THEY DID IT!

REALLY REALLY GOOD, but then we don't even get to have like, ONE episode of fun times, because Elena immediately discovers the Katherine photo, :( :(. Maybe it will be okay again really fast. I just want them to sit around having good times, like I always do.

It's a fun, genuinely good show. I recommend it!

Oh and I posted icons of the show in my most recent icon post. I think there's one extra in my userpics too if you want that one. And if you have any caps you'd like me to mess around with, feel free to post them here and I'll do my best! I loooove making icons of this show, the color palate is really lovely and all the yellow is an interesting challenge.

so serious

2009-11-15T07:20:44Z

you're welcome and good night.

re: Rihanna's "Rated R" album

2009-11-14T20:16:04Z

This has been the worst - the WORST - season for pop music I can remember.

It is a cruel irony that the song I find the most deliciously odd and challenging of the fall comes courtesy of Chris Brown & Co ("I Can Transform Ya"). Granted, I credit this more to its producer Swizz Beatz, but STILL.

FUCK RIHANNA'S PRODUCTION/MANAGEMENT TEAM WITH A RUSTY SPEAR. What an embarrassing betrayal of her aesthetic. Never should a female pop artist be forced into creating what is essentially a drippy response album to her very unfortunately public personal life. A gross, SHAMEFUL mishandling of her strengths.

I'M SO MAD. I haven't been so mad at music as I am at this fall maybe EVER. Jay, Cudi, Ri, THEY ALL SHALL FALL. I need the Clipse album rightthissecond to wash the taste of saccharine-ballad mold from my mouth.

The robot community frowns on your shenanigans, Robyn Fenty. You are ex-communicated.

(P.S. I can't post about this right now because I will ACTUALLY CRY, but on top of it being a remarkably disheartening month/season for me with regards to my favorite genre, the fact that Justin wrote the worst song on this album is the third strike for him over the past few weeks with me. The worst feeling in the entire world is questioning the biggest inspiration in your life.)

darling heart, i loved you from the start

2009-11-07T20:10:46Z

I waited until I could watch it all at once and it was so worth it, oh my god last night I totally lost it. Whoever thought to cast someone boyish for the deceptively detached, ever wonderful Mr. Knightley is a genius. BEST. INTERPRETATION. OF THAT CHARACTER. EVER.

I have three so far but I only capped one scene. If you have caps you like from other scenes I can try to mess around with them:

I have no icons of my answer (on purpose I guess)

2009-11-05T17:01:23Z

I HAVE BEEN POSTING A LOT LATELY WOW. It's called My Thesis Freaks Me Out (a remix of the Motion City Soundtrack song, get at me).

This is not Your Current OTP or The One You Like A Lot So Maybe It Is Your Favorite. ALL TIME. Like, you are going to a desert island (the Lost island!) and you can only have one forever and ever. I totally thought my Prison Break one would be my favorite forever but whoops, all my life I was only waiting for the tardis.

View Poll: #1481185

my girl love me but fuck it my heart beat slow

2009-11-05T04:29:58Z

Adam Brody should not buy Flaunt magazine this month.

Really I just needed to make a mini picspam of the Jax/Tara scenes from last night. The other day shrewtee was talking about how much she loves tired faces and I was reminded of that when I saw Jax in the last scene. GUYS, SO TIRED, SO SWEET, SO RELIEVED TO BE HOME! Ohhhhhh, tired Jax, he is so lovely.

SOA caps are SO CRAPPY THOUGH, it's endlessly frustrating. I did what I could...

His aaaaarm, how it stays. Everything about this is so achingly intimate.

He waited for SO LONG even when it seemed fruitless to do so and now he has her back and he gets to have faces like these, so relaxed and quietly happy to have such a settled and wonderful thing to come home to. Oh Jaxy, you are so in looooove, and so tired and knocked out by everything you just had to do, all of which was awful. I love you. Established relationships, they are my porn.

P.S. Julie Peel - Living In A Movie (this is your life?)

P.P.S. Britta's Gossip Girl Pilot picspam will make you so happy and so sad at the same time. Whyyyyyyy did they take this from usssss??
AND, I keep forgetting to link to Shruti's INCREDIBLE Karlie Kloss picspam. Karlie is my favorite model and even if you're not into fashion you should look at this because HER FACE IS AMAZING and she is 100% darling and worthy of attention!

ALSO JOIN fandom_tar I AM OBSESSED EVEN THOUGH I HAVE NEVER WATCHED AMAZING RACE.

I always cry during Parent Trap. Also Mean Girls is my favorite movie.

2009-11-03T03:33:43Z

View Poll: bygone days

I'm seeing sounds, yo

2009-10-22T22:43:52Z

FIRST I WANT TO SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO echofades and elapses, two of the most considerate and interesting people on my flist. I care about you guys so much that I can't put it into words, but thank you from the bottom of my tender heart for everything that you are and do - you've both had such an impact on my life and I'm so grateful to you. (ALSO ALEX BE AROUND MORE PLEASEEEEEE? I miss you.)

"To claim the identity of a 'fan' remains, in some sense, to claim an 'improper' identity, a cultural identity based on one's commitment to something as seemingly unimportant and 'trivial' as a film or TV series. Even in cultural sites where the claiming of a fan identity may seem to be unproblematically secure - within fan cultures, at a fan convention, say, or on a fan newsgroup - a sense of cultural defensiveness remains, along with a felt need to justify attachments." - Matt Hills in Fan Cultures

Even though I understand it, it's pretty much my #1 fandom pet peeve, that reflexive defensiveness. I can't staaaaaand the overuses of lmao's at the end of sentences professing love/interest in something, like it's hilarious that you care (it's not, it's just awesome and admirable). And man, all that "maybe it's just me" or "I'm weird like that" or any variation on those sentiments - STOP MAN, we're ALL IN FANDOM, we all feel the same way about something or other, so no apology necessary. I have a lot of fandom confidence and I know not everyone is like that because there IS a huge stigma placed on what we spend our time on here, but I just wish that, even despite that, there weren't so much weebling and wobbling within our own safe community about these things that DO matter, no matter what greater society seems to imply.

And all that I just said? A little bit of BS when it comes to this one thing, so, whoop de doo I'm a hypocrite and I'm trying to overcome it.

This really isn't even a big deal, I just get so SERIOUS internally about the soundtracks I make and I feel nervous talking about that in (fandom) public. I think it's because technically they don't require talent, just taste and effort. And also there is such a divide in terms of what makes one valid.

I get there there are a bunch of different ways to think of fanmixes. They can just be songs that made someone think of the characters, or something someone put together in a day because it's the idea that matters to them, not the precision. And it's not that I think that's dumb, but it's so odd to see that 95% of these things ARE that, when to me they they are the most un-lazy, challenging activity. So many people just slap together Daughtry and Death Cab and call it a day. And it's like, WHAT ARE YOU DOING. No seriously, what are you doing? What are you saying with that. You're saying nothing, because those songs have been devalued through their omnipresence and also they are VAGUE. They're vague, tonally and lyrically, they say little, ESPECIALLY when tied together. If you put a Fray song with that delicate Gregory and the Hawk "Boats and Birds" song everyone always uses, you kill them both through that act. THEY DON'T GO TOGETHER, THEY NEGATE EACH OTHER. That's not a soundtrack, that's a mishmash, it tells a horribly disjointed story. And if a fanmix isn't meant to be this theorizing on a character for you, fine, but people who post these things and then profess to have made any sort of meaningful commentary on a character or relationship - my miiiind, it is boggled. It's like, I don't want to make fun of specific ones I've seen, but there are like 80 Eric/Sookie mixes that are just BLATANTLY romantic in a way entirely opposite to how they are portrayed canonically. Why are you just molding them into your mainstream pop-music-influenced conception of what a romantic narrative consists of? By nature of these songs' popularity, they belong already to the masses and thus can't be divorced from their identity as a pop song. I don't think they can adhere to a character or ship.

I used to do that too, fuck up with tone and now I can't even look at my first mixes because I get all embarrassed. It frustrates me in general, with mix making not just soundtracks, that people generally don't pay as much attention to how the songs transition into one another and form an overall sonic narrative than they do to how much they like each song on its own.

You know, a song is never just a song, and not enough people look at music in relation to the other senses and the other mediums. The core belief of my LIFE, man, why I even believe I was born, is to appreciate and believe in the ability of sound and image to work together to make each other better, and even if people think that is a ridiculous thing to be so serious about, I DON'T. It is just what I care about.

But at the same time, it makes me defensive, because I care about creativity and originality and using my own mind, and this thing I care about is not dependent on my own creation. I am interested in editing, clarifying, tying two already made objects together to make each more precise and meaningful. That is of value, I know, but ultimately my greatest goal in life is to use other people's work to make my own, so, I have sort of a complex.

SO THEN, when I post fanmixes, some of that comes in, and it's also influenced by the fact that, like I mentioned above, so few people who make and download them seem to take them seriously in the same way. So I end up not saying what I really want to, every time, and adding in all these "WHO KNOWS" and "ha ha"s, like I don't have a right to be taking my own careful thoughts seriously. I wish I wouldn't do that.

Soundtracks are how I come to clarify for myself my thoughts on and feelings about the subject. If I make one for something it is because I don't fully understand my interest in it, and I want to figure it out the way I know how, which is through music and tone. I spend 1-2 hours per day working on whatever ones I've got going at the time, and it's both searching for music and then once I find a song, just sitting and thinking about why I want to use it (and what it means both sonically and lyrically about the subject), where it's going in the tracklisting, and what that opens up/closes in terms of what I need to still look for. When I finish and post it it means to me that I have come to a conclusion about the subject and truly understand it in the way I need to. It really is a psychological process for me, and I work really, really hard on them. Most of the ones I work on I never post, because they're just eternally incomplete.

I really don't care ultimately what other people think about them, and I don't expect things or need validation through other people's responses. Still it is nice when people are appreciative (especially because I CAN see how many people download and w/e, internet etiquette is different and people can get away with not saying thank you for a product but STILL, manners, goddamn), given how much personal stake I have in them. So thanks in particular for being very nice about the True Blood one. It was extremely fun to make!

Anyway. They matter so much to me and I felt the need to talk about it a little.

Relatedly, for the Sons of Anarchy fans, I have the song from the season 1 finale that is rapidly climbing the ranks of my favorite music cues ever and may even take the number one spot. If I could ever become the type of person who has the idea to put this song with that scene, I would just - that would be the proudest moment of my life, I'm sure. It made me feel and think about so many things. It did exactly what I think is most important for a music cue to do - pull out the crucial elements and nuances of a scene and heighten their emotional impact without being distracting. And I tend to not be too into actual soundtracks being lyrically accurate, but the subtle ways in which this song was are perfect for this show.

Dude I beg you if you haven't seen this finale yet, do not listen to this song. I know some people have different responses to listening to stuff before it's used in a film or show, but if you're at all tempted just think of it as an early Christmas present to me to wait. Or if you do listen, just don't tell me. Hearing this for the first time as an accompaniment to the content of this most REMARKABLE scene - it was an incomparable experience that is totally burned into my brain.

Curtis Stigers & The Forest Rangers - John The Revelator

And since many of us enjoy the talents of these two artists, the new singles from both!:
Frightened Rabbit - Swim Until You Can't See Land
Ellie Goulding - Under The Sheets

And since I did mention it, my Eric/Sookie mix is here in case you missed it and like them and like music and like them and music at the same time.

I wanted to hurt you but the victory was that I could not stomach it (Versus: An Eric/Sookie Mix)

2009-10-21T02:30:08Z

Okay this is for the build up, and the last song is like, the release. As in, Eric and Sookie are released into the wild to be SUPER AWESOME. The rest of it is the lead up - I was focusing on the dreams/lust from S2 and then I have this whole conception of Sookie as a marionette (controlled by Eric) who cuts her own strings, equalizing the relationship. There's also this sort of mutated fairy tale idea I've been tossing around lately with respect to them. So those themes, basically, are what I was going for if you're the type of person who likes to have narratives with their soundtracks. Just comparing all the soundtracks I've personally made, I think this is my coolest!

Oh also Versus can be a few things, for me it is Eric Vs. Sookie that becomes Eric and Sookie vs. Other Options That Suck, Or Something Like That

01 | little dragon | a new
despite the shape, this twisted form
kept me kept and wanting more
i saw you peeking through the door

blinded, like new
i'm feeling much stranger about you

02 | yeah yeah yeahs | heads will roll (willy joy sex dream dub)
dripping with alchemy
shiver, stop shivering
looking glass, take the past
off with your head
dance until you're dead
heads will roll on the floor

03 | radiohead | i am a wicked child
now i wake up in the night
lying on my bed
it's tugging at my arms and legs
like i was a marionette

04 | magic wands | warrior (the xx remix)
get down on the floor
like a snake you can slide
ever get the feeling you're the only one i could love?

05 | amanda blank | might like you better (booka shade remix)
i've got something for you
let me give you something to grab and hold
if you settle for a little maybe we can see stars, because

i might like you better if we slept together

06 | interpol | public pervert (carlos d remix)
but how many days will it take to land
how many ways to reach abandon
oh, abandon

so swoon baby, starry nights
may our bodies remain
you move with me i'll treat you right
i am honest, that way

07 | zero 7 | mr. mcgee
i touched the night, now it's gone, felt it right on me
i'm running hard and the dust, now it's right on me
i'm writing blind and these words, they're all over me

oh, lost them in the forest
oh, dawn is almost on us
oh, spell is getting stronger
down the well is nothing but wet
and it's all in my head
but if i'm in a dream, i don't care

08 | hi-brid | silent bullet (la roux vs. the knife)
yes in a dream all my teeth fell out
a cracked smile and a silent shout
(i'll explain it once thoroughly:
he'll have you later, cause it's never free)

this time baby, i'll be bulletproof
won't let you turn around
i'll tell you now, i'm much too proud
all you do is fill me up with doubt
but i caught a glimpse, now it haunts me

09 | royksopp | what else is there?
if i am the storm and i am the wonder
then the flashlights, nightmares, and sudden explosions -
there's no room where i can go, and you've got secrets too
it's about you and the sun, a morning run
the story of my maker
what i have and what i ache for

10 | basement jaxx | scars
coming loose at the seams
blind spots and voices
headlights and black demons
peering in my hollow core
grudges, they're strangling
and splinters and dry skin

save me, give me wings to fly
make me a reason to fight
kiss me then i'll wake up
fairy tales, make up

11 | the faint | forever growing centipedes (la dolce vita remix)
every time i move i'm in another dimension
everything i do changes what i want
i see a choice i make explode in thousands of pieces
every time i choose i become a shard
we'll seal ourselves in a timeless web
if every second we make new futures
we'll see how long we can hide from death

12 | deadmau5 | ghosts n stuff
it's been so long, i've been out of my body with you
i feel alone, feel at home, feel like nothing is true
it's been so far, i'd been walking the line on my own
we have sold in the cold, physical desires
you set me free, set me out on the run

.ZIP (.xml file in the folder that you can import into itunes so the tracks will be in order [go to File >> Library >> Import Playlist. I can upload individual songs if you want!...)

I want a smile like a glistening shard, I want a kiss that's as sharp as a knife

2009-10-04T19:45:43Z

HA (!), this is a public post, and thus has the potential to reach more people! The last time I did an explicit endorse-y plea letter was after watching The West Wing, it has been a while so my persuasion skills are rusty (and I so rarely am down with other people telling me I have to watch something, so I tend to shy away from doing it so explicitly myself - subliminal messaging dudes, it's the only way to fly).

LOOK FRIENDS, I KNOW WHY YOU ARE HERE. I mean in general in fandom. Am I wrong in saying it is because you love stories so much that their mere existence is not enough, and you have to engage with them further in order to feel like you're in control of your investment in them? The first part of that is that YOU LOVE STORIES SO MUCH. Sooooooooo much omg your HEART, your HEART!!! It's on fire. It is so fun to watch True Blood, and those really snappy sitcoms are so satisfying, and OH MAN, LOST IS COMING BACK SO SOON HOLD ME BABY JESUS, but oh oh oh GUYS, seriously, sometimes I think it is good to be so serious, and treat television like an instructional tool, a master class on narrative structure and the follow through, on how to reflect reality through extreme situations (the best! tv! does! this! realism! is! relative!).

GUYS, you must watch Sons of Anarchy. It is so good. IT IS SO GOOD. It is just mind bending. Somehow the producers and writers have created a universe so rich in content and character that at this point it seems like even 15 seasons wouldn't be enough. There is so much to explore! If you are interested in questions of morality, ethics, what constitutes a grey area, the inner-workings of biological families and found families and how they intermingle, lonely lonely men, fantastically complex and strong women, race, gender, and class issues, behind-the-times small town life, the limits and downfalls of bureaucracy, anarchy as applied to modern society, protection vs. endangering and how sometimes they have to be the same, extremely loose adaptations of Hamlet, the aftereffects of accidental murder, long term PTSD, relentlessly STUNNING romantic love (oh god, OH GOD, there is nothing like it), etc. - IT IS FOR YOU.

I don't think this is the kind of show where you can go all "Oh, I'm not into ______" as your reason not to watch it. SUCK IT UP, MAN. It is a story that has violence and upsetting content, not upsetting content that forms a story. And it is remarkably balanced - there is drama and a surprising amount of humor. The acting is impeccable, I cannot say enough about that. I have been blown away by pretty much every single episode, particularly the second half of season 1, in which we are led down the rabbit hole on a path so twisting and twisted it's FUCKING TERRIFYING. Everything that happens on this show can be interpreted in about five different ways, and there are a lot of times when the "protagonists" are deeply in the wrong, and a lot of times when the "antagonists" are, on principle, correct. But oh man, the concept of "what is right" and "the law" on this show are so, so complex, which makes sense given that its foundation is a type of anarchy/self-rule.

You will be doing yourself a MASSIVE favor in the service of your hungry mind and love of stimulating fiction by watching this show. I cannot guarantee that you will love it (though honestly, I think you will), but I can guarantee that it will make you think, and ask questions, and be thankful for this golden age of television we are living through, in which the reason that I love television more than film - that you don't have to leave characters just as you've become invested in their story - is exemplified spectacularly. You will never want to be away from these people.

(AND IF YOU NEED ANOTHER REASON, GARY BERTIER, GARY FUCKING BERTIER FROM REMEMBER THE TITANS, PLAYS ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING AND HEARTBREAKING CHARACTERS. BERTIER GUYS. BERTIER. "Nurse, are you blind, can't you see he's my brother?" BERTIERRRRRRRRRRRRRR.)

I want to picspam it but I don't have time right now. If I get to it over October Break in two weeks I really want to do like, Top 5 Jax/Tara scenes, because ohhhhh, ohhhhhhh, "hundreds of women, I saw only one face." But I hope peopleareshapes doesn't mind if I link you to two of the panels she did for a SOA picspam a while ago, because !!!!!! so pretty. don't you want to be a part of that???? I am sad I waited so long to be.

PLEASE WATCH THIS, SO YOU CAN HAVE IT FOR YOURSELF BUT ALSO SO WE CAN HAVE IT TOGETHER. (The first season is 13 episodes, we are up to 2.04 of the current season.)

And oh right I have a mix, Vol. 2 of that fall mix I made last year.

IT'S ALL YOUR (FALL)T Vol. 2
the silent years . black hole
sea wolf . turn the dirt over
the wooden sky . (bit part)
zero 7 . swing
thao with the get down stay down . cool yourself
monsters of folk . whole lotta losin'
gramercy arms . shining bright
youth group . start today tomorrow
stephen fretwell . darlin' don't
great northern . our bleeding hearts
the swell season . in these arms
laura gibson . come by storm
.ZIP
(w/ .xml playlist to import into itunes so the tracks will be in order)
(photo credit)

"I thought my heart - it broke."

2009-09-30T05:25:11Z

Every single second of this movie was perfect.

I know it's not playing at many theaters but if it's at one near you, I URGE you to go - it's far and away the best film I've seen this year and absolutely one of my favorites ever - I cannot convey eloquently enough the reverence this film has for the quiet moments and how affecting that is. Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, and Paul Schneider give astonishing performances. Everything is beautiful, in every sense of the word. Stunning, stunning film.

Just wanted to spam with these two photos next to each other!

2009-09-16T03:15:45Z

Yay.

Just three so far but I will probably make more:

I swallow your heart and it crawls right out of my mouth

2009-08-26T04:17:05Z

Man oh man, each episode is even more fun than the last!!!! I mean, I hate Maryanne, but still just enjoy everything full stop pretty much. I even liked Bill in this episode, he was super cool! Actually if Eric had been in more than the first scene of this one I think it would have been too MUCH for me, I was going so crazy with delight over the rest of it!! It's nice watching it with someone like Maegan too because she's super obsessed and does things like press "restart episode from beginning" without even asking the second it ends for the first time and talks about how Alan Ball makes the coolest kinds of stories because you can just have fun watching them and feel silly in a good way but if you're in the mood you can also take them seriously and be moved. That is just so nice, I appreciate that so much, I guess because for once I like the feeling of being in control of my viewing experience!

This episode was so beautiful, I picked out my favorite caps (I totally skipped the Eric/Sookie makeouts because IDEK WHY, but such was my dedication to only picking out the caps for beauty's sake - Eric's nose got kind of squashed during the kissing and it looked a little weird as still images. OH GOD I REALLY SHIP THEM GUYS, IT'S KIND OF NUTTY):

(Oh and I just got a new computer (glorious glorious new macbook pro) so I hope the coloring looks okay, I am not used to this level of brightness. Let me know if something looks really off)

Can I just say the scene with Jason and Andy being God and Sam faux-sacrificing himself is probably one of the most surprising, hilarious, and creative things I've seen on TV? I love that scene, I love Jason and Andy and Sam working together. GAWD.

I have this poem that I would probably say is my favorite, if asked. It would at least be one by its author, Richard Siken, I think. Anyway this one, "Snow and Dirty Rain," is just, like, what even IS this, it's so good and complex, you know? And my favorite line has always been one that's kind of mean and about love but a kind reached through lots of conflict and semi-dormant aggressive tendencies, so I've never been able to do much with it outside of appreciate it for simply being a great line. BUT NOW I CAN GIVE IT TO ERICCCCCCCCC (actually it could be from Sookie's perspective as well). Praise his light. But actually this is a huge chunk of an excerpt from it that is so Eric/Sookie to me it hurts:

My dragonfly,
my black-eyed fire, the knives in the kitchen are singing
for blood, but we are the crossroads, my little outlaw,
and this is the map of my heart, the landscape
after cruelty which is, of course, a garden, which is
a tenderness, which is a room, a lover saying Hold me
tight, it's getting cold. We have not touched the stars,
nor are we forgiven, which brings us back
to the hero's shoulders and the gentleness that comes,
not from the absence of violence, but despite
the abundance of it. The lawn drowned, the sky on fire,
the gold light falling backward through the glass
of every room. I'll give you my heart to make a place
for it to happen, evidence of a love that transcends hunger.
Is that too much to expect? That I would name the stars
for you? That I would take you there? The splash
of my tongue melting you like a sugar cube? We've read
the back of the book, we know what's going to happen.
The fields burned, the land destroyed, the lovers left
broken in the brown dirt. And then's it's gone.
Makes you sad. All your friends are gone. Goodbye
Goodbye. No more tears. I would like to meet you all
in Heaven. But there's a litany of dreams that happens
somewhere in the middle. Moonlight spilling
on the bathroom floor. A page of the book where we
transcend the story of our lives, past the taco stands
and record stores. Moonlight making crosses
on your body, and me putting my mouth on every one.
We have been very brave, we have wanted to know
the worst, wanted the curtain to be lifted from our eyes.
This dream going on with all of us in it. Penciling in
the bighearted slob. Penciling in his outstrechted arms.
Our father who art in Heaven. Our father who art buried
in the yard. Someone is digging your grave right now.
Someone is drawing a bath to wash you clean, he said,
so think of the wind, so happy, so warm. It's a fairy tale,
the story underneath the story, sliding down the polished
halls, lightning here and gone. We make these
ridiculous idols so we can get to what's behind them,
but what happens after we get up the ladder?
Do we simply stare at what's horrible and forgive it?
Here is the river, and here is the box, and here are
the monsters we put in the box to test our strength
against. Here is the cake, and here is the fork, and here's
the desire to put it inside us, and then the question
behind every question: What happens next?
The way you slam your body into mine reminds me
I'm alive, but monsters are always hungry, darling,
and they're only a few steps behind you, finding
the flaw, the poor weld, the place where we weren't
stitched up quite right, the place they could almost
slip right into through if the skin wasn't trying to
keep them out, to keep them here, on the other side
of the theater where the curtain keeps rising.
I crawled out the window and ran into the woods.
I had to make up all the words myself. The way
they taste, the way they sound in the air. I passed
through the narrow gate, stumbled in, stumbled
around for a while, and stumbled back out. I made
this place for you. A place for you to love me.
If this isn't a kingdom then I don't know what is.
So how would you catalog it? Dawn in the fields?
Snow and dirty rain? Light brought in in buckets?
I was trying to describe the kingdom, but the letters
kept smudging as I wrote them: the hunter's heart,
the hunter's mouth, the trees and the trees and the
space between the trees, swimming in gold. The words
frozen. The creatures frozen. The plum sauce
leaking out of the bag. Explaining will get us nowhere.
I was away, I don't know where, lying on the floor,
pretending I was dead. I wanted to hurt you
but the victory is that I could not stomach it. We have
swallowed him up, they said. It's beautiful. It really is.
I had a dream about you. We were in the gold room
where everyone finally gets what they want.
You said Tell me about your books, your visions made
of flesh and light and I said This is the Moon. This is
the Sun. Let me name the stars for you. Let me take you
there. The splash of my tongue melting you like a sugar
cube... We were in the gold room where everyone
finally gets what they want, so I said What do you
want, sweetheart? and you said Kiss me. Here I am
leaving you clues. I am singing now while Rome
burns. We are all just trying to be holy. My applejack,
my silent night, just mash your lips against me.
We are all going forward. None of us are going back.
full text.

I WANTED TO HURT YOU BUT THE VICTORY WAS THAT I COULD NOT STOMACH IT.

I love that line AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! Unfff and guys there's this other line in his poem "Little Beast" that goes sorry about the blood in your mouth. I wish it was mine. alskjdgalksdgjlaksgdj ERIC AND SOOKIE ARE SO AWESOMEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

True Blood 2.09

2009-08-17T06:39:04Z

INSTA-PICSPAM. NOT SAFE FOR WORK. NOT SAFE FOR YOUR VAGINA. HOLY MOTHER OF BEJAYSUS I FEEL LIKE A TWIMOM CONFRONTED WITH RPATTZ, EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO GET TRAINED IN ASKARS STAN DUTIES (btw I watched 2.05-2.08 tonight as well and finished just SECONDS before the upload for tonight's episode came up, so I FEEL LIKE I JUST ATE MY OWN HUMMINGBIRD HEART, EVERYTHING ABOUT TONIGHT IS SO AWESOME)

AND TY TO HYPEM'S "POPULAR" SECTION FOR BEING THERE FOR ME IN MY TIME OF ELECTRO-POP-RAP NEED, a proper soundtrack for the show in general:
M.I.A. feat. Blaqstarr - Way Down In The Hole
La Roux - I'm Not Your Toy (Data Remix)

IDEK dudes I am not even a huge Eric/Sookie person (now, yet, whatever), I JUST LOVE ERIC AND THEIR CHEMISTRY IS FIYAH!!! So I want it, this episode and the one before made me want it.

NO SERIOUSLY DURING THIS SCENE AND THEN AFTERWARDS I COULD NOT THINK STRAIGHT. I COULDN'T EVEN HEAR WHAT THEY WERE SAYING, I WAS LIKE MENTALLY MOUTHBREATHING SO HARD GOOD CHRIST. DIZZY. DIZZY. I HAD TO PAUSE AND RECOUP.

Oh also also also? Because they did this awesome dream sequence thing and it was like ~soft lighting and romantic~??? I FEEL LIKE THAT MEANS WHEN THEY REALLY HOOK UP IT'S GOING TO BE LIKE, CARNAL AND SHIT. TO BALANCE IT. AND BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN. OH MY STARS I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAITTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

alksdjlaksdglakjsdlgkasldgkalskdglaskdgjlakj UNNNNNNNNNNNNNFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF THANK YOU LORD OF SEXINESS.

ALSO THE REST OF THE EPISODE WAS RIDONK AWESOME AS WELL, PARTICULARLY THE STUFF ON THE ROOF. I CRIED, ROLL CALL WHO CRIED. YOU CRIED. I BET. OH AND I CRIED DURING THE JASON/SOOKIE SCENE BECAUSE THAT WAS AMAZING. RYAN KWANTEN + ALEX SKARSGARD FOR CO-MAYORS OF GENIUSACTINGLAND.

YOU GUYS YOU HAVE TO WATCH TRUE BLOOD, IT GETS SO EFFING LEGIT IN SEASON TWO, YOU WILL GO SO CRAZY FOR THESE CUPCAKES

This is the zone in which you can have me, this is the zone in which you can't have me

2009-08-11T02:23:32Z

It's Still Life, (Chuck/Sarah)
for season two -

This loosely follows season 2 - him shooting down possibilities in the beginning, her holding to that and sort of taking it to extremes through the middle of the season, and then the gradual expanding of hope towards the end. I'll just quote two things I said about the season in an earlier post that I tried to reflect with the tone of the songs on here:

I want to say something about Sarah Walker, and it is that she turns "quiet" into my favorite compliment. I feel complicated when I say that, like it's a fragment of an idea and doesn't translate well into an argument for her awesomeness. I am trying to say that there is so much inside of her that when Chuck grabs onto her wrist I feel like he's holding the context of his very self, not in the stupid way where she completes or makes sense of him but that she is full to the brim with humanity and the goodness apparent in the people around her is most clearly seen when directed towards or facilitated by her. And this humanity isn't loud, isn't overt; it is so innate and understated that it hardly even qualifies as subtle.

I just finished this book in which one of the characters told the girl he was in love with that he never signed her yearbook because it was easier to make her mixtapes and let sounds tell her how he felt than try to explain because there was too much to say and no right way to get it out. I do feel like finding sounds for Chuck and Sarah is better than me trying to be all HERE IS WHY THEY TURN MY RIBCAGE INTO A LADDER THAT I CLIMB TO REACH AND REPAIR MY EVER BREAKING HEART, but I want to say that when she thought he was dead in that car explosion and then saw him alive I thought at that moment that it was the most perfect thing I'd ever seen, and then there was the way he said "I know" when she told him the bracelet he gave her should be for a real girlfriend (my GOD the resignation and the love and the understanding and the but it's you it's you it's you inside of those two words, Zach Levi gets it in ways I didn't even know were available to get), and then him saying in threes (threes are always the best): I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait.

And I did find sounds to suit my feelings on them, so yaaaaay! Success! I really hope you like it, I tried to be really careful. And oh gosh, is the "still life" lyric just about the GREATEST THING EVER?! When I found that I thought EUREKA I HAVE DONE IT!

01 | TELEKINESIS | foreign room
i know this is going to happen every which way
too fast and then too slow, i watch it every day
you came in flashing your gun, story of my life
in a picture, we were young
well, look at us now
freaked out in a foreign room
i woke up beside you in a fake, but maybe real life

02 | KICKDRUMS | things work out
trying to figure out the lock to get inside
its no fun anymore, it's getting old i'm getting bothered
but wait it out, don't you lose control
ignore the impulse to do what you're told
it's no surprise it's getting harder

some people go their own way til they're lost without a clue
but i don't think that bullet's meant for you
and don't you think it's funny
how things work out

03 | GRAMERCY ARMS | nothing i can do
sometimes i don't know whether i should trust
the way i'm supposed to feel
or what happens when we touch
so many times i've tried
to let these worries go
or lose them from inside
before they burn out of control
and how could i have known
that you would be the one?
this is gonna be hard
maybe the whole thing's gone too far
but there's no other choice now
there's nothing i can do

04 | WINTERPILLS | secret blue thread
we are out walking with our hands in our pockets
we pull our coats tight, we dream in our headsets
of treetops in flames, outside the reach of our cars and our lenses
with our lies and our best friends

be prepared to be disturbed, disrobed and selected
drugged, unprotected, the subject of fights
the lies and the truth are braided together
an unbreakable tether, holding us tight

05 | A.C. NEWMAN | come crash
"that's luck," she said. "we should be dead.
we should be stars and perfect tens -
and that's just three off the top of my head
once again, you're a godsend."

"that's truth," she said. "we should be dead.
I should be sleeping in your bed.
instead, I'll crash on your floor."

06 | RUSSIAN FUTURISTS | still life
it's not funny, don't laugh, it's running uphill with your leg in a bear trap
i don't mean to be bleak but that's the sense that i get when we speak
i dont like to showboat because everything that i've done, you co-wrote
i scored a film on a notepad, you're in the credits so you should know that
in subtitles i wrote "i love you, oh I love you."

when i die, put a ring on your finger, you were always mine
and we both know we're just painted on canvas but it's still life

07 | LONEY DEAR | i was only going out
and I wish it didn't bother me no more
all the things that made me dark for such a time
cause i'm always sad and i always turn you down
but things have turned so different from now
and i'd sell my heart to make it right
i could run from it, but it always catches up

08 | GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS | palmistry
won't you come and read the future, turn it on
won't you tell me how i will not feel so lonely?
read the patterns on my skin, let the fire somehow get in
see my heart-line is intact - so this is what i lacked

09 | THE BROKEN WEST | the smartest man alive
you believe you know just what i'm going through
i'm all over the map, i've gotta hand it to you
i can cover my tracks, feeding back into your memory
and i am
hidden in plain sight
and i am
the smartest man alive
and i am
hitting you in waves
i think i'll come in closer

10 | JOSH PYKE | forever song
history tells us of worlds we'll know nothing of
then retrospect becomes a shackle tight on the ankles of us
oh, in the future we trust
we cross our fingers like some kids telling lies

i want to know that i know what i'm talking about
i'd hate to see this thing we've developed
become your burden or my waste of time
but when i'm sure that i know what i'm talking about
i'll take your burden if you say it's mine

11 | THE TEMPER TRAP | fader
and the sweet, sweet sun's comin' down hard
the sun's comin' down hard, it burns the bones
so hold a hand for cover, hold a hand for cover
and hold a hand for cover from harm

words don't sink, they swim
talk don't change a thing
oh, it's fading for love

12 | AN HORSE | company
it's times like this i think too much (oh please don't think too much)
and panel by panel and piece by piece this all fits together but it's not what you think
you said "i'm out on a ledge, come stand with me
i need the company"
so you're listening to every word i say, and i'm trying not to give it away
i like to keep my cards so close, you like to keep that console on
and all my broken hearts, and all my forgettable false starts
well you can have them right now, but you better not look away -
this is me trying to be brave.

.ZIP file, includes a .xml file that you can import into itunes (file > import playlist) so that the tracks will be in order. Let me know if you want any individual songs, I'm happy to upload. I appreciate you letting me know if you take this, thanks so much!

I would like to know -

2009-07-28T19:52:26Z

Excluding Florence & The Machine's Lungs, because I fear this poll would be boringly unanimous if that were an option (I too would choose it, btw download here if you want), what is your favorite/most-listened to album of the year so far? (LOL mine is weird, I haven't even talked about it in my LJ but I willll...sometime)

View Poll: Your favorite

Please feel free to elaborate in the comments!

I imagine the original Little Miss Vixen drawings framed in the master bathroom of their house

2009-07-10T02:40:40Z

IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU JUST CLICKED ON, THIS IS A REALLY LONG PICSPAM WITH COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF COMMENTARY.

So I just rewatched the entire series and I love 90% of the characters but I have tunnel vision when it comes to what I want to talk about, so all I can do in lieu of that before I start this is say briefly: RYAN AND TAYLOR!!!!! TAYLOR IN GENERAL!!!! RYAN TALKING MORE IN LATER SEASONS!!! SANDAAAAAYYYY!!! KIRSTEEEEEEEEN!!! JULIE COOPER NICHOL COOPER ROBERTS BULLIT ATWOOD!!!! WE CAN TALK MORE ABOUT VARIOUS PLOT POINTS IN THE COMMENTS IF YOU WANT!!!

Can I just say, before I say anything else? That the two actors responsible for these characters are spectacular and this story wouldn't have been a fraction of what it was without them. Both because they are so, so thoughtful and smart and also because when you are in love with someone in real life you touch them differently on screen, for the better.

I'm not sure where to place my General Seth And Summer Theory but the majority of it can be found in scene #2, which is maybe illogical but it's completely tied to that moment. Suffice to say DEAR GOD I LOVE THIS RELATIONSHIP, TO AN EPIC, EPIC DEGREE PREVIOUSLY UNFELT EVEN THOUGH I ALWAYS LOVED THEM. I JUST DIDN'T REALIZE HOW MUCH (and my tastes are slightly different now which accounts for the increased effect).

Five Favorite Scenes

five (4.10).

Well - she's hilarious, for one - my favorite thing in the world is to make her laugh, she has a crazy honk of a laugh, it's like Nelson from the Simpsons. You know and stop me, before I say she makes me a better man, but she makes me more of a man, or certainly less of a boy. [pause] I love every minute I spend with your daughter sir. I really do.

Summer isn't technically in this scene but she is ~in it~, just like how my favorite Josh/Donna scene is Josh getting to the hospital in the season 5 finale, hearing Donna is okay, and doubling over. This scene, like loads of others in the post-Season 1 strange and only occasional wonderland, could have been so much better had they really let it rip, really let Seth say it all. But it isn't, so we make do, even with the additional hindrance of Adam Brody being forced to squint into the sun the entire time so his face has like, zero emotion the entire time. WOW THIS IS AWESOME, I'M BEING SO POSITIVE. Here:

This scene is #5 because of this line:

and stop me, before I say she makes me a better man, but she makes me more of a man, or certainly less of a boy.

I think that is brilliant. That enables me to rag on a scene/season for not being good enough only to remember that line and consider - in some way - everything rectified (while simultaneously proving why the lines surrounding it should be better - the writers are capable of such insight, why is it employed only sparingly?). That is their entire storyline told in a sentence.

I do love that he says he loves every minute he spends with her, but I wish he'd told Neil that he has always loved her, that they are best friends, that they are a team in the truest sense of the word, that she makes him happy, so so happy, and that he tries so hard all the time to do the same for her. Seth struggles with earnest moments but they are nearly all at the hand of Summer, and Adam Brody is so capable of conveying that vulnerability that I wish they had given him a longer monologue during this plot arc that really, really said everything. We know it all, yeah, but hearing even this small piece of it out loud was a total gut punch. I love it.

In general I found Seth and Summer a bit strange in S4 - I know lethargy was their plot in the beginning anyway but it extended beyond that to the point where I am pretty sure it had something to do with Adam/Rachel becoming Adam and Rachel. They stopped touching in the way they did in S3 (more on that later omgggggg!!!!!) and so often Adam looked so tired, like it was hard for him to stand next to her. How hilariously unmerciful the writers were to them - potential pregnancy! proposal! wedding! There is absolutely no way it was not weird to watch her walk down the aisle when months before you had maybe been imagining the same thing yourself. That said, the fact that their plot arc in Season 4 was essentially Fear Of Being Too Content is pretty glorious to someone like me who hates conflict. WHICH REMINDS ME OF THE WONDERFUL MOMENT IN SEASON 3 WHEN TAYLOR ASKS RYAN ON A SCALE OF 10 HOW SOLID SETH AND SUMMER ARE AND THEN INTERRUPTS WITH "6? 6.5?" AND RYAN JUST SHRUGS AND SAYS "NAH, 10." Mother of mercy my OTP is unbreakable, why is this such a rarity on television.

ALSO SIDENOTE: I FUCKING LOVE NEIL ROBERTS.

four (season 1).

OH MY GOD I WANT THIS SCENE TO GET PREGNANT AND HAVE CHILDREN BECAUSE THEY WOULD BE THE CUTEST SCENE CHILDREN EVER, LOOK AT HOW HE CAN'T STOP LAUGHING, HE LAUGHS INTO HER MOUTH, LAUGHING INTO SOMEONE'S MOUTH IS THE GREATEST USE OF TIME EVER INVENTED.

I love this because he is by some miracle totally in control of himself for most of it (dare I say bordering on suave in the beginning?) and it's just like oh ha, ha, this is a pleasant activity, you are very nice Summer, and then he pulls back for a second and OH MY GOD WHAT. WHAT. Or okay, that's my reaction, but his is those words in lower caps, like the entire thing is so surreal he is catapulted back to serenity since there is no space in his body left to be bonkers. Anyway he just lies on top of her grinning and then laughs again, but it's more of a breathy giggle, and GUYS EVERY SINGLE TIME THAT MOMENT OCCURS I JUST MELT. He is so boyish and so happy and this is all, all, all he wants.

And oh gosh do I ever love the juxtaposition this episode has with him/Summer and him/Anna. It's funny, back in the day when it was airing I first wanted him to be with Anna (up until the Valentine's day episode, oh my heart) and I still love her so much and it was devastating when she left because she was such a good friend to Seth and truly wise and okay, "Confidence, Cohen" is probably my favorite line in the entire series and I say it to myself when I am feeling not brave. But as I was saying, I love the juxtaposition, because he really does like Anna, he does, but it's a totally different kind of like and you see it in the way he's pleased when she kisses him but oh god he just melts into Summer like it's his favorite dream and he knows exactly how it goes (THAT IS THE THING THOUGH OH MY GOD, like Summer is literally the girl of his dreams but I think all the time about what his imagining of her deeper self was vs. what it actually was. He thought about her yeah, but what a mindfuck that must have been that first year or so, when layer upon layer was revealed to him and he started to actually love her, not just love her because there was something in him that understood. I think the show is wonderful in general at implying that Seth innately knew that she was complex and deeply compassionate before most people and maybe even Summer herself did [albeit not in S3 when they do that intellect vs. intellect plot and Seth strays wildly out of character and the show implies that we're meant to think Summer isn't that smart - there is absolutely no way they could be as close as they are without her being a true curious and intricate mind, and Rachel Bilson plays her like this to perfection, so I don't know what that was all about]).

three (season 2).

This is the best thing they ever did, isn't it? I think it is. It is so tense, so perfectly paced, I swear everything is bubbling so violently under the surface that I always feel like it's going to explode towards the end, but it ever so perfectly does not. I actually really like the first half of S2, I think it was necessary and again, paced beautifully, all leading to this moment (I think this moment is way better/more important than the Spider-man kiss, which I totally love, but, yeah).

AND OH MY GOD YOU GUYS HIS REACTION??? I say this is the best thing they've done and I have half a mind to propose that those two seconds are the best in the entire series. LOOK AT HIM, HE IS GOING TO CRY HE IS SO FLABBERGASTED AND GRATEFUL. alskdjgalksdgjalk ADAM BRODY YOU SAINT. I will never, ever, ever get sick of that moment, it is truly a work of art. And also sidenote but I love these situations they do a few times with them where from a far it looks like total female objectification but the way Seth handles it it ends up being nothing but tender. I don't think this scene could be any less about her bangin bod, even when they get up close to it it's in the interest of the Seth/Summer tension dynamic and her efforts to help him. And the way Seth continues to react, it is with so much love...this is really just the sweetest, most innocent scene, which is ironic I guess.

UNGH okay and he does that thing right before he bends down where he looks up at her like "Okay?", and then he is so so careful, so careful. It's beautiful. Also, at that moment with his hands at her waist "Cartwheels" by The Reindeer Section starts and I remember distinctly the prick of tears when I first watched this. That song is spectacular, and spectacularly used. Absolutely delicate, like everything in this scene.

I'm pretty certain his reaction against the door is how 90% of people watching this reacted. Mind boggling scene, it knocks you out. Honestly, award worthy; their chemistry is incomprable. LEGENWAITFORITDARY.

two (season 2).

Summer: What do you want from me?

Seth: You. I just want you.
Summer: No, you don't! You had me. You had me at Chrismukkah in a freaking Wonder Woman costume, and you chose Anna. You had me three months ago and you left.
Seth: I want to make that up to you.
Summer: It has nothing to do with me. It is about you, and it is always about you. What you need, and what you want, you know, it seems that you only want me when you can't have me! You like the chase, and that's all.

Okay, well. Well actually first of all I love this scene for what it implies but ultimately what is said is spectacularly untrue as we know, but she has every reason to think that. Anyway, that is not why I like it.

HERE IS MY BIG POINT I WANT TO MAKE ABOUT WHY THESE CHARACTERS FASCINATE ME TO NO END, and this is the scene that demonstrates it so painfully and so PERFECTLY, sweet christ.

I don't know if the producers/writers intended for the characters to be interpreted this way or if Adam Brody was consciously doing this but it is how I see it, so. Seth is verbose to the point of insanity - he is always talking and there is always something for him to critique or worry about or joke about - things excite and frustrate him so intensely that it is almost as if there are too many words that apply to his thoughts and he is in a rush to get them out. I am pretty sure he's one of those people whose brains work so fast it's overwhelming (Kid Cudi: my mind runs, I can't even catch it even if I've got a head start). And if there are too many words in so many situations there is one thing in his life for which there are not enough. Not the idea of her, and not the discussion of her, but when he is confronted with a serious situation between the two of them he falters, and it is made all the more obvious due to its rarity. She stuns him, almost literally - it is a remarkable manifestation of the idea of the knowledge of love vs. the feeling of it:

But these moments in early season 2 are the best and the most important in this category because they are also the beginning of a new conception of identity for him (OH GOD THIS IS SO SERIOUS, are you reading this right now and thinking THIS IS TOO SERIOUS? sorry, except not). I think Seth leaving for Portland and what happened to him and Summer because of it is freaking brilliant. It demonstrates beautifully Seth's sense of himself and his relation to other people - which is essentially, outside of his parents, that no one is truly invested in him (and Ryan leaving just reinforced that belief that he had maybe come to think was not entirely true for a while). In the way he leaves things hanging with Summer it shows also that even after being with her it was hard for him to break out of his almost lifelong perception of her place in his life, which is that she is always - symbolically or tangibly - there. He is so used to living with her in mind that he in some sense of the word takes her for granted, just because he is so aware of his love and so used to it being an entity within himself that it is constant, unending, without responsibility. This scene above shocks him into acknowledging that someone else is invested in him in a way he's never had to understand before, and the look on Seth's face here, like he has absolutely no idea how to respond because the scenario is so foreign to him - it's unsettling, in a good way. He's lost, he has nothing to say partly because he is so thrown but also because he doesn't understand what she really means until (I assume) he eventually thinks about it. His conception of their relationship is that it is an always thing, because it has always been that way for him. Obviously shifting from an internal world that had been his for the past 17 years into this new outside land where he is responsible for his actions in a way that brings confusing consequences that have no place for the kind of lifestyle in which you leave because you think no one cares and you can't stop loving her anyway so what does it matter where you are - it's very difficult for him.

Eventually though he figures it out. And this is why a lot of the execution of their plot in season 3 bothered me. I think it could have been handled so much better, and most of the problems were because they didn't adhere to what I took to be their earlier conception of the characters and their relationship. It is also more simply that they didnt' let Seth and Summer talk, really talk, to each other enough. There are too many abbreviated, interrputed, or dramatically-huffing-out conversations that are beneath them. In the beginning of S3 there's that episode where they discover they're not applying to any of the same schools and Summer asks Seth why he didn't consider it (when earlier in the episode it is revealed when Taylor asks that Summer herself didn't consider it, and she shrugs her shoulders and says "different tastes" when asked why not, which I thought was in character) - he doesn't reply with anything remotely related to the question, and I was so bothered by that missed opportunity, in which he could have said because distance sucks but it's college and we have to choose places that suit our tastes, and we can be away from each other and it's okay, and it shouldn't be a deciding factor for either of us because we're stronger than that. SO MANY PEOPLE DO IT, it's part of why you go to college. But I guess it's TV so whatever. Anyway there were so many frustrating moments in that season due to lack of communication that I thought was totally not them, because you know by that point they tell each other everything, they are BFF and basically only hang out with each other because everyone else is lame, they realized, once they formed their unbreakable stealth team.

Anyway. That's what this scene makes me think about and why it is my second favorite. So, so well executed, and driven home again by this scene in the next episode, in which he yells for the first and only time at her:

Maybe I can't just be friends with you!

And that's it, that's all he can say. He's just totally, totally out of his element, he has no idea how to convey what happened or how he feels because it is too innate by now.

BUT SERIOUSLY LOOK AT THIS AGAIN:

How Ryan has to practically hold him up afterwards. And oh, her face and her words here, and how she is telling him what he did wrong but also saying you left you left you left you left and why did you do this to me and I love you and I don't know what to do, help me - oh my heart. The unfolding of Summer's compassion over the first and second seasons is a small miracle if I do say so myself. We are treated so often to her girlyness but her most moving scenes are when she is most simply a girl. WHICH LEADS ME TO:

one (season 1).

Was I really mean to you?

I always, always cry over this. This is one of the best episodes, and the room redecorating is one of the kindest things I've ever seen done on television - it's also just such a freaking GREAT plot, the kind Seth and Summer deserve and post-S1 rarely get, the kind that showcases their teamwork and hilarity and innate thoughtfulness (which I sometimes feel like they're not even aware of - it's like by both being the same way they don't realize how special it is that they're so good to their friends). I know the focus in this scene is on how lonely Seth used to be but oh my god every second of this is about Summer for me, and the series of emotions she runs through while looking at him. I am in deep love with the evolution of her character over the season - I started out not liking her but by this episode she was just breaking my heart with wonder, and I loveloveLOVE that that evolution is prompted by the final straw of her previous social circle proving themselves to be terrible friends. Because really it's Holly and Luke hooking up that does it, right? It's just like, that happens and Summer checks out. She is a wonderful, unquestionably loyal friend, and that this theme is pivotal and mentioned with such reverence by numerous characters over the seasons is just...!!!!!!!!!! Thank you, OC, for valuing this. Thank you thank you thank you. You did teen girls and the portrayal of friendship a massive service.

Anywayyyy, in that moment when she asks if she was mean to him - it is an awakening, an apology, a plea, and an expression of her evolving identity and self awareness that is just completely unmatched by anything I'd seen on a show before, and it's always been my favorite moment and the one that makes me most emotional. She is a remarkable character, Seth's equal in every way, and in this moment when she is most vulnerable she is also her best self, and it is a self that combines with her quirky snark and irreverence to form A GODDAMN SUPERHERO from that moment on. It is for reasons like this that I think I (and most people) had such trouble with the bad parts of the later seasons - the characters were so, so wonderful and complex and fully realized, only to be thrown to the terribly plotted wolves, and that was the last thing they deserved. It is a shame that they didn't get better writing the whole way through, because the actors were more than capable and the characters so entitled.

WOW THAT JUST TOOK LIKE FIVE HOURS TO TYPE, WHERE DID THE TIME GO. Anyway I have more.

Random Scenes I Enjoyed

Season 3 is, in general, a piece of poop by all accounts, but in this very small way it is my favorite: In no season is it more obvious that Rachel and Adam are RIDONKULOUSLY in love and happy (!!!!!!!!!!!!) - their body language and constant touching is so omgintimate it seems private, like we shouldn't look at it. Like this moment:

Which you can't see compleeetely clearly but she is holding onto the back of his pants.

And (well this is S1, but whatever same point:

And (actually this is S4 but they were still together)

This scene is so quiet and so the epitome opposite of what I was complaining about before re: them not giving Seth and Summer a chance to be themselves, which means being okay with being apart and having separate lives after high school. He's SO GREAT in this you guys, SO GREAT. He's visiting her at Brown and Summer has this meeting and he just waits on the bench outside and then he's so happy to hear about how it went and then he tells her to go back in and not worry about him and it has absolutely ZERO contrived tension or ~omg does this spell trouble???~ to it - and the episode ends with him leaving a message after leaving early, saying "If you don't hear from me for a while, it's not because I don't love you, it's because I do." It's FANTASTIC. Also look at him waking up from his nap all sleepy-cute. I need to make a gif of it.

ALSO SETH AND THE MONSTER NOISES. He makes them repeatedly into her skin. It kind of makes my life.

IT IS AWESOME: the last thing Seth and Summer do in all of S3 is hang out in a huge box for like two hours, probably making their hands into dragons and having an epic battle. Monster noises in the box! And oh, look at her darling face.

RANDOM CUTE THINGS:

This is probably my #6 scene, it is SO beautiful and just, like, god - their faces and the way she kisses him twice. I said this in an earlier post but this scene makes me think of Coach in season one of Friday Night Lights: "This is my dream. You are my dream." A gif:

HE MARRIES HER. SHE MARRIES HIM. I cannot imagine a more satisfying ending. And look at his face in that second wedding cap, my god Brody.

Truly one of the greatest ships ever. We're lucky.

text in the intro image is from Nicole Krauss's awesome History of Love, and it was an association first made at the slaughterhouse90210 tumblr.

P.S. Part 2 of this is their real life counterparts.

I took the stars from my eyes and then I made a map, I knew that somehow I could find my way back

2009-07-06T04:12:36Z

ROLL CALL OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN THROWN TO THEIR KNEES BY FLORENCE & THE MACHINE'S LUNGS - WHO IS WITH ME (actually if there is a person not with me I suspect you of being a robot - wtf mate, re-examine your heart). It is so stunning, holy god. And it's like, vaulting pop music into the stratosphere; she just pushed the bubble close to bursting and now everyone else has to catch up. This is a public post or else I'd be linking lickity split.

I'm obsessed with OC stuff right now, you may have guessed from my string of disabled comment shouty rants and screen cap posts. I need to get everything all squared away with this before the 15th, hopefully I can make it (though it's not like I have a choice regarding my emotions, Half Blood Prince waits for NO HEARTS!, I will be right with you).

I just rewatched Adam's thing In The Land Of Women, which I remember as being not so great, but I liked it more this time. I think because I relate to Carter even more now. I hate to be the person who's all ~I AM this character~, but dude...that is the closest we're going to get, I think.

It seems like Adam's gift and his curse is his voice; the cadence he can't shake and that (YES I WORSHIP ADAM BRODY, ASSIMILATE:) gloriousohmygodMIRACULOUS shaky and scratchy pitch. It is a character unto itself, and so I think for people like me who have a Seth Cohen shaped TV past, it will always be a struggle - no matter how good his other performances are - to reconcile his various characters with the sound of him and really ~move on~. It's probably pretty easy to trace Seth Cohen over Carter Webb, just because if you want, you can isolate the voice and use the way he curls himself downward and widens his eyes to keep him the same, in this movie and always. I was doing this in the beginning, and like, sitting there waiting for him to do Seth stuff, but then I started really looking at the guy and thinking about how Meg Ryan's character described him as "a sweet kid" and "heartsick" and DUDE, Carter is so earnest (without being precious) and quiet and calm and Adam slips into that so welllllllllll ohmygod. It's still kind of a weird movie and it feels oddly brief, like it never really starts, yet I think there's something there, even if it's just about how to stop feeling lost.

Anyway I may have mentioned this before but this movie is extremely memorable to me for its super uplifting "everything is going to be okay" final scene - due to it, my ultimate co-star fantasy is for Adam Brody and Ginnifer Goodwin to make a romantic comedy together. I picspammed the scene, dear lord look at the delightful chemistry. Oh and there was this:

That makes no sense if you haven't seen the movie but Adam's character Carter is dumped in the opening scene by his famous actress girlfriend, and then later in the movie there is this rumor that she's with Colin Farell now, and Carter is a writer and in this one scene he's just like...rambling typing, and that comes out, but I replaced the actor, because Adam Brody >>>>>>>>> The New Boyfriend. ANYWAY:

LOOK HOW OPEN HIS FACE IS IN THE ONE IN THE SECOND TO LAST ROW ON THE RIGHT!!

RIGHT?!?!?! I want this like burning. I seriously want their entire life story (and by their I mean Carter and Janie), it would be so delightful, because Ginnifer Goodwin has such an innocence to her, I think it would pull a certain sweetness, a pure delight out of Adam that would be TOTALLY NEW and TOTALLY AWESOME and probably it would make you push at your rib cage to make sure your heart stays in it.

Oh and he wears glasses a lot in the movie. No one complains:

AND WHOA, PUT THIS MAN IN THE RAIN AGAIN STAT, HOLY GOD MAN:

Yeah. I lust, I lust, I lust.

We have a lot more to do, friends, I am compiling the picspams now, let us hope they get completed seeing as I feel it is time to return to the glorious land of 2005, where co-stars frolicked in glee AND NEVER BROKE UP IN ORDER TO BE WITH SEEMINGLY SUPER BORING CANADIAN STAR WARS ACTORS.

captaincatapult @ 2009-05-03T01:49:00

2009-05-03T00:49:53Z

Flist cut, inactive journals and divergent interests. Have a good oneee!

Oh, teenage hopes are alive at your door

2009-04-17T00:11:28Z

HEY 17 AGAIN COMES OUT TOMORROW. Are you dyyyyyingggggg? Long wait eh, eh, eh??? I will tell you that I am dying in a different way, dying to talk to you about ALL THESE AMAZING THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN IT. So excited dudes, so effing excited.

I am finally going to write down all my thoughts! It'll be super spoilery! I am detail obsessed, this is going to go into like, specific instances of his voice cracking. But come back! When you've seen it! Oh but hey before the cut I can say this:

1) It is so, so, genuinely good and sweet and wonderful and smart, and if you are worried that it will let you down in any way, it will not. It will be better than you imagined, I guarantee, because there is no way you could imagine:
2) How good he is. Ohmygod, you guys, OHMYGOD. Like, you know on Lost a week ago when Locke was like "there is a difference between believing and seeing"? To feel the results of your predictions is SO TOTALLY OVERWHELMING, and yeah it's like "Oh he's going to be great, I know it!," which is what I thought over the past year and a half with various degrees of intensity, but WHEN YOU ACTUALLY EXPERIENCE IT YOU ARE GOING TO CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT HIM MOTHERFUCKING AGAIN. And actually, that goes for everyone, because it's going to change the way casual fans/viewers look at him too, because he is SO LEGIT, TOO LEGIT TO EVER QUIT, and yeah he's fanastic in this RIGHT NOW but he's also dripping with pontential, and the other day when I was saying this isn't hot people getting roles because they are hot and decent at acting, I AM BEING SO SERIOUS. He. is. so. for. real. and. he. will. be. Brad. Pitt. but. 80. jillion. times. better. I look at him differently now, I respect him on such a DEEPITY DEEP LEVEL. Oh god, it's just...I lucked out with this one, I lucked. out.
3) I have been losing my mind with pride for so long with this boy over his kindness and quiet wit and professionalism and work ethic and effort and most of all his commitment, the love wound around his spine, but OHMYGOD CAREER PRIDE, CAREER PRIDE!!!!! SUCCESS AND ACTING TALENT PRIDE!! Amazing, clear-headed feeling, plz never leaveeee (it won't)! I am so, so proud of what he did with this movie, and that he chose it in the first place, because it's so exactly right. I am so proud of his success, that someone like this is succeeding. I DON'T CARE IF MOST PEOPLE ARE INTO HIM RIGHT NOW BECAUSE HE IS DELISH, THEY'RE PROPELLING HIM FORWARD FOR THE PEOPLE WHO CARE MORE, LIKE MEEEEE.

*btw when I talk about new fans I IN NO WAY MEAN ANYONE ON MY FLIST, I could write an entire 3,000 word essay on how over the moon delighted it makes me every time someone tells me they might be getting into him/their golden universe!!!! It's just people I don't know/trust.

4) For a certain subset of amazing people: V totally has a presence in this movie if you tilt your head and take the dialogue out of the story; you will be satisfied I think.

Film thoughts:

OH, FIRST, trailers. They ran Half Blood Prince every time which I AM SORRY, I feel like there should be warnings for that because it totally takes you out of your life and whatever you're doing and throws you to the ground in fits of love and devotion and fear. SO BASICALLY I WAS CRYING BEFORE THE MOVIE EVEN STARTED. LIKE BRITTA SAYS, YOU DON'T KNOW MY LIFE. They also ran Bandslam which was both clever and unfortunate, because lame teen bitches kept going "ugh" and "boo" and HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SCREAM THAT HE IS NEVER GOING TO FUCK YOU, BE HAPPY FOR HAPPINESS, SHIT. Whatever. In real life I think bitchy attitudes towards her are a little more understandable because people are very willing to admit that it's merely because they're jealous, unlike on the internet. Still dumb though, but you can't win them all.

Okay, so in terms of a general comment, I thought this movie was amazing. It is an amazing story, it just is, it doesn't even feel derivative to me. It feels magical. And I think it is desperately sad and most of the audience seemed not to get that, because they kept nervous laughing at the parts where it got romantic between Mark and Scarlett, and those were the times I was most affected and just CRYCRYCRYING, so it was odd. But god, yes, it's SO SAD and Zac and Leslie are so good at conveying every facet of it, I was really blown away with how deftly it was handled, because it is a very strange conceit.

OPENING SECONDS: LOLOL at my theaters, they whooped, yeah yeah yeah they knew what they were doing, and it's so gratuitous but I will just say OH DEAR CHRIST, HE IS RIPPED.

But oh oh OH! I just knew right off the bat, and this is such a random line to realize it on, but the way he says "Because he's part of the team, DOM" and throws the ball at him - It was like "Oh, you're an actor!" And I got it. I knowwwwwww he has been in stuff before, OBVIOUSLY, but not real stuff, not real characters.

AND THEN SUDDENLY IT WAS A HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL GAME, AAAAAAAAH AT THE HSM PARALLELS AND HOW THEY ARE TURNED ON THEIR HEAD IN ABOUT TWO MINUTES. Augh, the way he leans on Ned's shoulder and mouths the words to the MC Hammer song, and then jumps in and does the cutest little dance EVER, he is such hot shit, goddamn. SO BENDY AND ELASTIC! And then and thennnnn his GIRLFRIEND. Guys, oh god, for some reason I did not see it coming and I legit thought he didn't know who she was, but then he's all "Oh right! It's my girlfriend" and HE HAS NEVER SAID THAT WORD BEFORE and it is REALLY LOVELY.

But then I got nervous, and I swear there was this RED ALERT TEXT going of in my head like "NO TOUCHING! NO TOUCHING! She's not, it's not, you can't -" but then it was TOTALLY FINE, OBVIOUSLY, BECAUSE I AM NOT THAT MUCH OF A FREAKAZOID, and actually it really helps to instantly see him with another girl so you can start thinking of him as a character. And unghhhhhh his face towards her, it was so sweet and caring and the not letting her get away with it and the SILENT TELLING (OMG MOVIE MAGIC, I LOVE YOU) and him walking away and the game starting and that ONE SECOND of not knowing what to do before his reflexes kicked in and he started dribbling. AAAAAAAAAH!!!! And the way he throws the ball over his shoulder like OH HALE NAW I AM NOT LETTING HER GET AWAY, and runsssssss.

And then it was this: this scene, in the hallway, kills me. I think it is my favorite, this or the one in the courtroom, but probably this one. OHMYGOD IT IS SO SWEET, OHMYGOD. The running and the slipping!!! oh oh oh!! And then he's leaning and I'd waited for that lean for so long since we got the trailer god knows how long ago, and then they were talking over each other and HE SAID "YOU ARE MY FUTURE" ALL BREATHLESSLY which is AN AMAZING FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS S1 FINALE STYLE LINE and MADE HER STOP TALKING BY KISSING HER. HE IS MACKING ON HOES GUYS, HE IS MACKING THE FUCK ON HOES. I died, I do not even care, I died, it was so beautiful. BUT THAT WASN'T EVEN THE END, DEAR GOD THIS BACKPACK IS A PARACHUTE WITH WINGS, HE PICKED HER UP AND SPUN HER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HALLWAY TO THE MOST GLORIOUSLY GRAND SWELL OF MUSIC EVARRRRRRRRRR. My. heart. exploded.

(That said I know where spinning comes from, and 5% of me had this totally instinctive gut reaction of you can't do that with other girls so soon after, but it doesn't really matter.)

AND IT IS SO WONDERFUL TO SEE SO BLATANTLY SO EARLY ON HOW GOOD Mike O'Donnell is. I remember Z saying in a recent interview that one of the things he became most certain of and was most comforted by after first talking to Matthew Perry about the character was that Mike would be good. On a personal sidenote I appreciate how loving Zac Efron has brought the original meaning of good back into my vocabulary with such frequency - perhaps this is what I should say when people ask why I like him so much.

And then Mike was old. Oooooh Matthew Perry, you amazing man, how long has it been that I've loved you? SO VERY LONG. Since middle school dude, GOD. This really is the convergence of my very first fandom with my current and all-time.

OKAY. OUT OF ALL THE THINGS IN THIS MOVIE, I AM MOST PLEASED AND GRATEFUL THAT ZAC EFRON IS IN A MOVIE WITH A T.G.I. FRIDAYS JOKE. Like, I CANNOT EVEN TELL YOU HOW FUNNY I THOUGHT THAT WAS. That's like, Office S2 humor, Michael Ian Black jokes, really SMART shit that you hardly laugh at because it's too fucking observant all you can do is be like THAT IS SO EXACTLY RIGHT. AND BRITISH PEOPLE DON'T GET IT!! They don't have TGI Fridays here, so nobody laughed!! They didn't laugh at the Make-A-Wish thing either, they must not know what that is either.

His kids were pretty rude to him in the ice cream scene, I don't know how I feel about that. I guess because he's been such a dick it's merited. But then that scene in the backyard with Scarlett was SO EFFING AMAZING, AUGH Leslie Mann is such a genius. That conversation, "You didn't have to marry me!" "YEAH WELL I DID," and the way it looks like she just got slapped with those words and sort of falls in on herself and gets tears in her eyes? HEARTBREAKING, my god. She's so good, she's sooooo good.

Blah blah...Mike falls into the vortex. Oh wait "It's Naomi -" "I don't care" = hilarious.

ANYWAY AND THEN THERE WAS ZACHARY.

The whole fight was ridonk, I think the Ned character is so inspired, because it allows for so much: that fight given all of his relics, a friend who doesn't question the oddness of the regeneration due to being a massive geek, the money thing, etc.

"Aaah, an elegant weapon, from a far more civilized time." LOLOLOLOL

Let me just mention that the second he got out of the car, I could not look away from his hand for this entire sequence. Guys, for TEN STRAIGHT MINUTES, ZAC EFRON IS WEARING A WEDDING RING. Mind = blown, it's like my time machine fantasy came true, I SO FREQUENTLY LOOK AT HIS LEFT HAND IN PHOTOS WHEN IT'S OVERLY CONSPICUOUS AND THINK ABOUT IT. WHATEVER, YOU KNOW I'M LAME. It looked very good, I am sure you agree. See you in nine years.

"Are you, or have you ever been, a norse god, a vampire, or a time traveling cyborg?"
"Vampire wouldn't tell. Cyborg wouldn't know." !!!!!!!!!!!

Omg okay the way Mike gets out of the car when he gets to the school? Did anyone else notice this? It's like this weird mix of Z not being able to ever control his legs and purposeful physical comedy, and I AM KIND OF OBSESSED WITH IT. I AWAIT A GIF.

MAJOR LULZ AT THE FAKE PHOTOGRAPHS NED MAKES FOR HIM, ESPECIALLY THE ONE WHERE HE LOOKS LIKE A HUNCHBACK WITH I THINK IT'S KOFI ANNAN??? IT'S SO EFFING HILARIOUS!!!

The way Thomas Lennon says "Mark's a bastard" is possibly one of the funniest things I have ever heard.

The conversation in the hallway about looking like a douche is amazing on a stupid level just because ~omg Zac Efron said douche~, but I am sorry SHIT LIKE THAT IS A BIG DEAL, HE WAS TROY BOLTON OKAY. Plus I really like the way he pronounces "douche," it's like overpronounced or something. "BEDAZZLED WITH RHINESTONES"

Omg the scene where he comes in all tricked out, SHIT DUDE that is one fine motherfucker right there. Except his hair was too flat and he looked weirdly small but WHATEVER, PETTY DETAILS. Plus Spoon was playing and it was so appropriate. THIS MOVIE HAD A GREAT AND SUBTLE SOUNDTRACK! More on that lataaaa I bet you can guess when.

"Would you maybe consider dating a tenth grader?"

And my god the way his voice cracks on "I'm a lot closer to them than you think," it cut so deep into me. HOW IS HE ALREADY THIS GOOD, I AM JUST STUNNED.

I think Alex is such a sweet kid, awww. And I loooooved that lunchroom scene, WHAT A TOUR DE FORCE. Okay first though, "Why, is your mom hot? I mean, what? sldkgjjsg" SO SO SO SO SO GOOD, OMG THE DELIVERY ON THAT, I CANNOT HANDLE HIM.

AND LOL FOREVER AT STAN PICKING UP LIKE, THE TOP PART OF A HAMBURGER FROM THAT KID AND RAPING IT.

So, the basketball lecture. WHAT THE EVERLIVING HELL, like, I - okay first of all I don't know how he does half the stuff he does with like, rolling that ball around and over and under his body - WHAT WAS EVEN GOING ON THERE, that was ridic. But aaaahaha "First! I'm going to call your father!" And then the three reasons, ending with "really small wiener"? BRILLIANTLY DELIVERED. But the best part? THE PART MOST TELLING OF FUTURE AWESOME EFRON PERFORMANCES AND ONE OF THE BEST MOMENTS OF THIS MOVIE? "Don't hurt yourself," with the manic eyes. It defies comment, tbqh.

"If this were Afghanistan, she'd be dragged through the streets by goats, with her hands cut off I AM JUST SAYING, JUST SAYING." Mmmmm and I looove the way he emphasizes Mrs. O'Donnell when he talks to his wife, like he owns her.

The abstinence scene was such a good idea and the best way to get the most ridiculous Father In Teenager's Body dialogue. IT WAS SO FUNNY!! It was so funny. Sorry, I'm still getting used to the fact that I CAN TYPE SENTENCES ABOUT HOW ZAC EFRON HAS AMAZING COMEDIC TIMING. I lovelovelove the way he's like I AM NOT IN LOVE, AND IT IS MY UNDERSTANDING THAT WHEN YOU HAVE SEX, YOU DO IT WITH SOMEONE YOU LOVE, and leans back in his seat like he just delivered the most irrefutable point EVER. And the way he turned from incredulity to such open fear and protectiveness - it was very delicately managed and it's stuff like that that I hope doesn't get overlooked, because MAN did he navigate the complexities of the role well. ALSO STAN: "I HAVE NEEDS." AMAZING, A+ HUNTER PARRISH.

Alex making the team and Mark doing the 'super inappropriate' hug was no less funny in the actual movie, HOW I LOVE THAT SCENE.

Oh god, and the backyard. It is so beautiful, and he is so shocked that he gets teary, and they way he conveys with just his face that it's not just the garden that's overwhelming him but how much he doesn't know and missed out on with his wife is SO INSANELY SAD, GODDDDDD. This scene kills me, by the way. "You're an amazing dancer!" "...I mean, you just look like you can move." aldkjlaksdfgjalkjfglaksfgj THE DELIVERY, I AM A BROKEN RECORD I KNOW, BUT IT'S SO OUT OF CONTROL WITH HIM. And the way he puts his hand on his face after she leaves and leans back like he can't handle his embarrassment, AUGH.

Just the fact that Z was in a room with a woman who was dancing to a soul song makes me so happy. I have this thing where I always think about how maybe when Z does something to make V mad he tries to apologize by playing Al Green and getting her to dance with him. But then Mike changes the song and omggggg that is so romantic that he plays their wedding song.

AND THIS SCENE. Ohmygod I was crying like a small child, it is so affecting and well played and the lights!!!!!! How he can't not touch her, and keeps reaching out, and the look on his face, and him saying "jump" and then THEY ALMOST KISS?!??! AAAAAAAAAAAAAH it's so so so so sad, he's so sad, god. I can't get over it. But then the movie does it again, it's SO GOOD at having these insanely emotional and delicate moments and then sneaking in a HILARIOUS LINE like the way he says "It's creepy, right? She's so old." One of my faves.

AND THEN AT THE PARTY, when the three girls hit on him and he slips up and looks lustfully at the blond for like two seconds after she says she's flexible? I DIE, I JUST DIE, it's so perfect the way he eyes her up and down - it's so...older mannish who can't help himself because he never expected the opportunity. LOVE. IT.

OMG. HIS. DAUGHTER. HITTING. ON. HIM. IT IS SO CRAZY!!!!! That scene, I love the shot of him running across the bleachers at the beginning, I think it is darling. And then the way he's like "Ohhhhh I can't hear this!!" and then he's just destroyed because it's awful and Stan is awful and everything is so awful? GOD. AND SHIT, I forgot the line, but it made me think of V, it was that thing about the sun revolving around you or something (ETA: Britta has informed me that it is "One day you will meet a boy for whom the sun rises and sets with you.")? BUT LOLOLLL how she tries to kiss him and he does that handsy dance thing, it's so great.

SANTOGOLD ON THE SOUNDTRACK, OH HELL YES, that worked so wellllllllllllll.

Aren't you majorly sad that they cut out the party dance in the trailer? It looked so cheesy dad-tastic!

Um okay. SO I TEASED PEOPLE LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER THE PAST WEEK OVER THIS SCENE THAT IS KILLING ME, BECAUSE I JUST WANT TO TALK ABOUT HOW IT IS THE MOST ZAC EFRON META THING EVER:

MIKE AND HIS DAUGHTER IN THE BEDROOM, FROM MEMORY SO IMPERFECT. LET'S COUNT THE TRUE STATEMENTS:
"But you're not like the others, you're good, you're so good!" <----- TRUE! ONE
"Not like the others, very, very different from the others."
"Oh. Oh I get it. Oh! Your jeans are really tight!" <---- True! TWO
"What?"
"And your hair is always perfectly coiffed, and you have highlights!!" <---- Half true, highlights are gone! THREE
"Wait, what, I'm not gay!" <----- True! FOUR (Sidebar: mad props for the non prejudiced tone in his delivery, that could have easily gone the wrong way)
"But -"
"No, Maggie, I'm in love. I'm in love. I've been in love with the same girl since I was seventeen."

...

TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TRUTHS FIVE THROUGH EIGHTY JILLION!

I AM SORRY, THAT LINE WILL NEVER BE ABOUT SCARLETT FOR ME, and I totally thought about him practicing his lines with V and getting to that part and GRINNING LIKE A FOOL.

uh yeah that scene was awesome. MOVING ON.

So Scarlett comes and they kiss for like .05 seconds and WHY DID EVERY MEDIA OUTLET ASK ABOUT THAT, it was practically non-existent! I totally expected something more drawn out, but whatever that's cool, this makes more sense. And then the next morning he says "I've lost everything" and I die again.

BUT YEAH SELF, YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE HURTING THEN. OHMYGOD THE COURTROOM SCENE, MY HEARTTTTTT. People were laughing for the other scenes but it was quiet for this one man, it was QUIET. WOW SON. I don't really have anything to say other than I thought it was absolutely remarkable and honestly I am tearing up right now thinking of "If I love you, I guess I have to let you go." The way he can barely even SAY "If I love you." Ohmygod, it's so heartbreaking, and then leaving the directions on the stand and LOOKING BACK AT HER WHILE FUCKING "THE GREATEST" PLAYS, JUST KILL ME NOW THIS IS SO GOD DAMN GOOD. They were both amazing in that scene and I cannot get over it. He is such a good actor, I can't...LIKE DO YOU KNOW THAT THE FIRST TIME I SAW HIM IT WAS SPRING 2007 AND HE WAS JUMPING IN THE OCEAN WITH HIS GF? That's why I know who he is, I was pulled to him because it was a co-stars dating sitch and they looked so bright, and then I saw HSM, HSM2, and Hairspray in quick succession and some different kind of spark lit that I didn't understand and NOW I UNDERSTAND IT, AND MAYBE SOME PART OF ME KNEW, BUT MOST OF IT DIDN'T, SO IT'S GOING TO TAKE A WHILE FOR ME TO DEAL WITH THE FACT THAT HE IS GOING TO BE AS MUCH A PART OF MY FICTIONAL LANDSCAPE AS MY RPF ONE. I thought I'd lost interest in stuff like that in favor of stuff like this, but the stuff like this is BECOMING the stuff like that, and I AM SO OVERWHELMED BY MY LIFE!!!

And what an ending, with the basketball air kiss and the repeat of the first scene. "I cannot do this again, I cannot be here again". He gives it all up for her TWICE. This thing is getting billed as a fun family movie but it is an EPIC ROMANTIC COMEDY. God, I just...it's wonderful, everything is wonderful.

That was a good movie about good people being good. I could not have wanted for more.

And I'm sure I've forgotten things, so maybe I'll come back and edit or just include them in my next post.

Sometimes you can't say it enough

2009-04-16T00:13:44Z

my god. So there were commoners at the premiere, like IN the theater, and some of them are on FanForum, and like blessed angels they reported back: When Z came into the theater, she was already sitting down, and when he sat down next to her, she kissed him, and he touched her face and then kissed her back. TOUCHED. HER. FACE. I do not even care if that is a petty detail, that is the least petty thing I have heard this entire day. OHMYGOD HE'S SO EXCEEDINGLY ROMANTIC IN THE BEST WAY EVAAAAAAAAAAR. SOMEONE BRING THE PRIZE FOR SUBTLETY DOWN TO ZAC EFRON'S ROW S'IL VOUS PLAIT. Also she apparently kept leaning her head on his shoulder. But they left early. But she's already seen it so it's okay. I am just obsessed with my personal canon that every time this certain line comes on in the third act, he squeezes her hand. BECAUSE IT IS TOTALLY ABOUT HER AS MUCH AS IT IS ABOUT HIS MOVIE WIFE, YOU WILL SEE.

anyway.

OKAY, FIRST, JUST LOOK. LOOK WHAT HAPPENED:

LIKE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM CURRENTLY GOING THROUGH. It is like someone came and took the cutest children alive and made them, when your back was turned, the most overwhelmingly beautiful people IN THE HISTORY OF TIME. WITH BONUS FEATURE: kindest, happiest eyes in celebrityland. Shruti has this LJ interest "watching people grow up," and I think about that so much now. IT'S WHAT WE DID DUDE. And there are going to be so many more fans now, and I'm cool with it but like someone said earlier in the week, I feel like someone discovered my favorite indie band and suddenly they're playing arenas. HERE COME THE ADULTS. When their fans were kids it felt like I still had an awesome secret. Everyone's about to know now. Still, the thing is, if I get uncomfortable or antsy or selfish, I can fall back on my elitism and superiority complex and remember that Y'ALL DON'T KNOW THEM LIKE THAT, I WAS THERE, YOU WERE NOT.

Relatedly, the majority of humans do not know how long they have been together. Every single person I talk to in real life thinks it's been like 5 months. LOLOLOL. And the moment when I reveal the actual length of time is always so exceedingly delicious: "Wait seriously? SERIOUSLY? Ohmygod. Wow, that is amazing. Good for them."

ANYWAY THE PREMIERE. Apparently this was for a movie Zac is in but I swear to god I have never experienced a more personally Vanessa-centric event in my life. This is the most beautiful she has ever looked to me. BUT LET'S DO Z FIRST, SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST:

SOUNDTRACK? LIL WAYNE FEAT. CHRISHAN | look at me now

He is so pretty it's...I don't even know anymore.

And he looked really happy and relaxed! I was glad, you never know if it's going to be sleepy shyness, nervous social awkwardness, or the rare giggly charmer.

It's stuff like this though where I get selfish and protective. Like NEW FANS, you aren't going to go to a Z gallery and stop at these photos. BUT THEY ARE THE BEST PHOTOS. I just worry they're not going to appreciate how much of a nerd goober he is. HE NEVER KNOWS WHERE TO STAND OKAY. You're not going to know that he never knows where to stand.

These make me so happyyyyyyyy. Other co-stars!!! There will be so many in the future!

Beautiful.

ALSO, I know, I KNOW he has really massive biceps, but I am not really into that area of the male anatomy, so PLEASE LET'S HAVE A MOMENT OF RESPECTFUL SILENCE FOR THE WONDERS THAT ARE ZAC EFRON'S FOREARMS. Bow, bitches. Best forearms in the biz.

Those are from the afterparty. It was at a bowling alley. The entire time, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens sat in one of the lanes, and apparently her face was falling apart with pride. SHE IS SO HAPPY FOR HIM YOU GUYS, I CAN'T HANDLE IT. OH AND THEIR FAMILIES WERE THERE!! The Hudgens and Z's family, and Vanessa was like chilling with them on the carpet. We were watching the live feed, and the reporter was this idiot cuntbag who kept asking all these nobodies how they knew Zac and talked about how great it was that she and all of them were here supporting him etc etc, and I kept feeling creeped out by the group wank over him when I didn't even know who these people WERE, so hearing the stuff about the families and the HSM cast being there and all of that, it was so warming and calming, because THEIR show of support is something I, like, understand and KNOW. I LOVE THAT CAST. I love that they were all hugging each other with such glee.

So, QUEEN V. This is the most beautiful she has ever looked to me, and to be honest, I can't remember ever thinking a celebrity has looked this stunning, and glowy, and happy, and relaxed, and settled. AND DEAR GOD DO I LOVE HER OUTFIT. It is the most amazing balance of floaty and sweet and completely badass and ill. And even though fine I would have liked ONE photo of them together, I love that they went separately, because he had all that shit to do and they would have been INTENSELY distracting because anytime they do something together no one can pay attention to anything else that's going on since the sheer force of their light eclipses everything else.

You know why I REALLY love that they arrived separately though? Because I think that means he had to deal with reacting ON THE RED CARPET. I don't know, maybe this is not true, but I can't stop thinking about him standing at the end of it when she's on the other end, and doing half a jaw drop, and leaning forward to see past someone in his way, and getting stuck in that position momentarily, and her seeing him, and him mouthing "You -", and her laughing and walking into the theater. HOW DOES HE HANDLE HIS LIFE, I AM SORRY, HOW DOES HE HANDLE IT. Everyone's always losing their shit over his face and getting envious, but ALL Y'ALL MOTHERFUCKERS ARE JEALOUS OF THE WRONG ONE, this is the luckiest man on earth dudes, OUR LORD IN HEAVEN. EXHIBIT A THROUGH Z, and an exemplary demonstration of The Two Vans:

PART 1 - Sweet and Delightful Van

PART II - SEARINGLY HOT V, MOTHERFUCKER WHAT EVEN ARE YOU

SERIOUSLY, DID HE NOT DRAG HER FROM THE AFTERPARTY CAVEMAN STYLE, FLING HER AGAINST HIS KITCHEN WALL, AND FUCK THE EVERLIVING BEJESUS OUT OF HER LAST NIGHT? SURELY NOT BEFORE HE HAD GOTTEN HER AGAINST THAT WALL AND RELINQUISHED HIS HOLD ONLY TO SPIN IN CIRCLES, DRAG HIS HAND DOWN HIS FACE AND SHAKE HIS FINGER AT HER, SAYING "YOU. YOUUUU -," BUT THAT'S AS FAR AS HE'D BE ABLE TO GET BEFORE HIS BODY DECIDED THE ONLY PROPER RESPONSE WAS AN ALMOST HILARIOUSLY GUTTERAL GROAN.

VANESSA HUDGENS, DAMN GIRL.

CAST, CAAAAAAAST! How did he get so lucky, all these people seem so wonderful and kind and smart and funny.

THESE FUCKERS. Ohhhhhhhhh man, oh man, these guys are all so goooooood. Good at their roles and then so delightful off screen. I just love Hunter Parrish, he is so unexpectedly accomplished in small ways, like dude what the eff, he did Spring Awakening for like four months. Dude has the same skill set as Zef, it's kind of interesting to think about stuff like that and realize that Zac Efron is going to be MASSIVE not merely because he's eerily talented but because he has that magical something that most people don't. Not that Hunter P isn't awesome it's just, you know.

THIS GUY. THIS GUY. Universally beloved and no one more deserving of it.

And families!!!!:

Leslie Mann said her older daughter had had all of her friends bribing her to get tickets to this thing, and like one of them wrote her ten impassioned letters pleading to come. I don't know who she picked but it's all so darling, apparently her daughter's room is covered completely with Zac Efron posters.

And then Shankman and Vanessa, my god how sweet. Could Vanessa Hudgens melt your heart any more? God, they must have met through Zac and Hairspray (he produced it, and 17 Again) and Adam Shankman just loves her so MUCH, you have to see these gifs below, he's just ALIGHT at being in her presence.

This is the thing that makes me all dorkily emotional, how obvious it is that their universe is constructed of so much love both inside and out. So many people are there to support and help and protect them, and I have to think it's because they are so deeply good and grounded. And that these people all do it TOGETHER, like Z and V's management teams are all friends and work together all the time even though they're from different firms, and they hang out with each other's parents, and go to each other's movie sets and meet costars and directors and producers, and all the while this network of support and love is developing around them. I AM SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS, I DON'T EVEN KNOW. Kindness wins!!!!!!!! Finally the nice guys are finishing first.

Where do you get off, and how can I get there too?

2009-04-13T22:20:15Z

OH.

I think this is so sweet, he looks so happy/darling.

Overall: fantastic, clear, handsome photographs, which is excellent because usually I think the adjective has been HOT lately.

The full article can be read on GQ's site HERE, and good lord is this boy trying hard - seriously, it's like jesus Z can you swear a few more times. I mean, it's obvious why, and GQ understands too and kindly comments on it - the desire to seem like a man to the ultimate men's magazine when you're riding on nothing manly. It's cool, it's cool, and it's kind of sweet in its way.

But in terms of its analysis, this is a REALLY good article. It's cautiously optimistic and curious about the strange nature of his fame. I am in a little bit of a different boat than they are because I think he's truly golden and is, post his performance in 17 Again, guaranteed a stellar career, but their comments on his persona are insightful and I'm going back and forth on whether I agree:

“I don’t want to be famous for my personality. If anything, I keep that under wraps.”

All this makes good sense. But by refusing to be out there in the mix, participating in the thermodynamics of Hollywood social life, Efron’s placing a giant bet on his ability to stay relevant post–High School based on hard work and talent alone. He grew up in a Disney force-field bubble surrounded by shrieking girls; now it’s like he’s replaced that bubble with one of his own making. It protects him from dirt; it may also be protecting him from grit. He might have a better shot at some of those Penn-like roles if he were willing to let the world see a side of him that hasn’t been carefully managed.

I think there's a medium between the two styles that can be reached, and I keep thinking of the way Clive Owen presents himself - always affable and polite, smart, thoughtful, but private. And that's what Z is trying to be, I think he just needs time to become less self-conscious and defensive about it. But who can blame him, he's asked all these meta questions about what it's like to be famous, so he gets trapped into talking about his handling of fame and if you're trying to stay private in that respect, it gets weird. I think for where he is and all of the pressure he is under to not make a misstep, he's doing it right.

THIS IS AMAZING:

Efron isn’t embarrassed about High School Musical, by the way. He says if he had it all to do over again, he’d do another one for free. He does get embarrassed, though, when he starts explaining what it was like when acting finally did get in the way of his schoolwork, when he found himself torn between his ambitions as a performer and the life of a normal high school kid. “I was really fucking confused,” he says. “This is so stupid, but it was kinda like…”

Say it!

“It was kinda like High School Musical.”

THIS IS ALSO AMAZING, and PROPS FOR MAKING IT THE LAST THING IN THE ARTICLE:

Well played—he doesn’t mention Hudgens, even though she’s there in the pictures next to the Luv Ewes, too. Just as carefully, we ask about their status. You went to your manager’s wedding in Kauai, we say. Everybody thought you were getting married.

“That was such bullshit,” he says. “I’m definitely not getting married. In this business, you’re either getting married or they want you to be pregnant. I’m not getting married until I’m 40. If ever. The thought never crossed my mind.”

And then, after a few seconds in which he maybe calculates how this is going to sound to the girlfriend he doesn’t talk about having, he says:

“Maybe not 40. Maybe not until I’m 30.”

YEAH MAYBE HONEY. That sounds about right. I love that, I love how they include the couple of seconds he pauses to think about it. Like oh wait, okay, that's...19 years...I don't think, Van says -... "Maybe not 40..."

I like being back in the safe cocoon of not talking about her, I am more used to this.

ANYWAY, IN CLOSING

Efron’s Audi is a kiln. He starts the car and Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga picks up midsong.
FUCK YOU, YOU BASTARD CHILD OF SATAN, you're supposed to be the kind of guy who doesn't get around to getting the new Coldplay until two months after it's come out. LET ME JUST HAVE THIS ONE THING, PLEASE JUST HAVE ONE FLAW. I am just glad it's not Gimme Fiction. (I'm not actually genuinely upset by this, just annoyed because it's my personal canon that he's pretty up on hip-hop but not other stuff)

Well, alright then. That happened, he covered my favorite magazine, he's famous as fuck, and I have been here almost the whole time and will be for the rest of it. Life is lovely. More later, as always.

let me tell you bout the new shit, kid cudi in the game you should know it

2009-04-03T21:39:58Z

I made some more icons!

(Zac, Van, ZacandVan)

(HSM3)

(Kings)

(Bon Iver, Kid Cudi, Kanye West, Wayne)

captaincatapult @ 2009-03-09T20:37:00

2009-03-08T20:42:44Z

OKAY SETH VS. BLAIR IS SO FAR OBSCENELY CLOSE. If you are at all torn/indifferent on that race, I IMPLORE YOU TO VOTE FOR MY MAN. I know he's not going to make it all the way, but IT IS NOT ABOUT THAT. This is about NOT LETTING NEW BLOOD VANQUISH THE STANDARD THAT GOT THE NEW BLOOD THERE. And TO ADD TO THAT, THE STANDARD IS SO VERY KIND, ENDEARINGLY NEUROTIC BUT NEVER SHORT ON HEART, HAS A SMILE THAT TURNS YOU MELTY, AND MAKES THE CONCEPT OF LOYALTY EXPAND TEN TIMES IN SIZE.

THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO HIS IMPORTANCE: a) THE HISTORICAL RELEVANCE AND HIS LONGTIME POP CULTURE ICON STATUS (and no matter what happens with Blair she will NEVER reach that - Seth and Alex P the music supervisor changed the way people listen to music) and b) HIS ACTUAL SELF: HIS A+ PERSONALITY AND HEART-CLENCHING PURITY OF HEART.

Do the right thing.

my campaign starts now

2009-03-06T02:50:59Z

THE BRACKET IS OUT.

WHEN YOU CAST YOUR BALLOTS OVER THE NEXT WEEK, REMEMBER SETHELEH. REMEMBER WHAT HE GAVE US.
(also if I see that you did not support him, especially when it comes to Blair vs. Seth, we are not speaking for several days. DON'T DO IT)