accepting Born This Way

Thursday, 28 April, 2011 at 11:59 pm

My first exposure to Lady Gaga’s song, Born This Way, was on the Grammy’s this year. Back then it bored me and I completely tuned it out. I’m not a “little monster” or a big Gaga fan. I plan on buying a couple of her songs, but for the most part I don’t follow her. I’m pretty neutral about her, so my not liking the song wasn’t a big deal.

But last week Al Yankovic released a parody, Perform This Way. I read his account of the whole ordeal, jumping through hoops to end up getting turned down. (And ultimately okayed.) I gave his song a listen and actually ended up liking it!

Weird Al’s explanation that he planned to donate all sales to the Human Rights Campaign because the original “was such an earnest human rights anthem” also got me more intrigued in Lady Gaga’s song. ‘An anthem?’ I thought. ‘I don’t remember hearing that in the lyrics.’ (That I totally didn’t listen to.)

In a weird coincidence, this week on Glee they performed Born This Way. I really enjoyed their rendition of it too. (It was such a fun episode! And yay, Kurt’s back!!)

I couldn’t figure out where the disconnect came for me. Usually I don’t like songs on first hearing them (Selena Gomez? *grin*) (mostly because I have to be in the right mood to listen to different types of music, but that’s not important) but I never completely write them off and consider them a waste of my time.

Today I went back to view the performance at the Grammy’s, the only time I had ever heard Gaga singing the song. I have to say, I don’t know if it was done on purpose, but the sound mixing was horrible. I could barely hear Gaga’s voice. The times I did hear her though, she didn’t sound all that great. I have seen other live performances of hers, and she’d never sounded that bad to me. But then that might be because she wasn’t dancing around the stage so much like at the Grammy’s. She had more energy to devote to singing.

Finally, finally, I watched her music video with her studio recording, and it sounded like Lady Gaga to me. Yay! Don’t know that I’ll buy the song though. But Weird Al’s and Glee’s versions are definitely on my to-buy list!

stupid spam

Monday, 18 April, 2011 at 11:15 pm

Or maybe I should say smart spam? ;)

Can I just say what a relief to discover someone who truly knows what theyre talking about over a internet. You really know how to bring an trouble to light and make it important. A lot more individuals have to read this and understand this side from the story. I cant believe youre not much more well-liked since you actually have the gift.

Why thank you, Sir or Madam Spammer! I still won’t approve your comment though.

This internet site is often a walk-through for all of the data you wanted about this and didn’t know who to ask. Glimpse here, and you will actually discover it.

Yes, we all need to know more about playing Tetris online. *blinks*

Good writing here I really really like the way you write your blogs. I will continue to visit your site in the future to read more great blog posts like this one! This is an awesome post here. love on web fighters :)

All these comments are on my post about putting a Tetris game on my website. Lately I was considering moving it to my other domain though, there I’ve got more content geared toward the visitor, and not all about myself and I.

voting for the stars

Friday, 15 April, 2011 at 8:48 pm

(I am so lazy, I’m writing this a few weeks too late.)

I’ve watched Dancing with the Stars since the season that Marie Osmond was on (researching on Wikipedia, it was season 5, fall 2007) although I’ve never actually watched an entire season. I just watch the occasional episde because I don’t like the anticipation and drama of reality shows. (“Just get it over with,” I always scream in my head.)

I saw Marie Osmond (by the time she had her hyperventilating/fainting episode I’d already tuned out) and I saw Sabrina Bryan absolutely robbed (I still think she should have won ;P). I skipped watching Kristi Yamaguchi’s season, opting to focus on schoolwork and figuring she was already the winner before the show started anyway.

I didn’t tune in again until after I graduated college and was back home where my brother regularly watched the show. His watching made it easier for me to remember to watch, and it made my viewing in general much easier, because I could walk in and out of his room when I was interested or not.

Fall of 2009 I rooted for Kelly Osbourne, the next season it was Niecy Nash. Fall of 2010 I really tried to see the whole season, but after Margarte Cho left I got bored, and Brandy wasn’t enough of a draw for me. Although I do think Jennifer Grey won the season after the first episode, I also think it was completely unfair for Brandy to get kicked off over Bristol Palin?! I still regret not watching and supporting Brandy more.

When the list of stars for the current season was released, and everyone was calling it Dancing with the Lesser Known Stars, I have to say I wasn’t really interested. But after listening to Kevin & Bean on KROQ in the morning while lying in bed, and I realized this Mike Catherwood was the host Psycho Mike, I suddenly became much more amused (and interested).

I sat down and watched the few dancers I was interested in for the first two weeks, even going so far as to register on abc.com in order to vote for Mike (and Kirstie, and Ralph). After all the hassle of registering (tried 3 or 4 times before it worked -_-) I was really disappointed Mike was voted off.

I didn’t vote for him as a joke. I honestly wanted to see if he could improve his dancing. “He had two weeks,” my brother told me. But still! I wanted to see more of him!

As Kevin and/or Bean said, though, “At least now we don’t have to watch the show.” I looked forward to hearing their remarks about it the day after the results show, but they really are too negative for my tastes. Now I can go back to rooting for the standards. Go Ralph!! (I really should log on and vote for him. I’ve had two weeks to get over my disappointment. ;P)

In conclusion, I find it hilarious that KROQ, a rock radio station, was my impetus to finally register to vote on Dancing with the Stars after all these years.

blossom layout

Sunday, 13 March, 2011 at 12:32 am

Kind of new layout. Sort of. Not really. Different graphics and color scheme. Still the same code and … layout. Placement of things, y’see.

Changed because I figured plaid and a holly sprig were not well suited to March or the following months.

I hope it’s a decent layout, because I missed Natalie Portman’s interview on the red carpet show in order to upload it! (Yeah, it’s taken me that long to update about it. Think how long it’ll take me to write entries about … whatever it was I’ve been bouncing around in my head for the past month that I can’t quite recall now. O_o)

(And woot! Natalie is now Academy Award-Winning Actor Natalie Portman, for the rest of her life, for ever and ever! XD)

to gleek or not to gleek

Sunday, 27 February, 2011 at 12:30 am

Ever since the Super Bowl, when they aired a new episode of Glee after the game on Fox, I’ve started watching Glee again. I’m still not sold on the show though.

When Glee first premiered, I tuned in every week to watch the show on Wednesdays. But after five episodes in I still didn’t care enough about the characters to keep watching, and I chose to watch new episodes of Mythbusters instead.

Well, it’s not completely true that I don’t care about the characters. I love Kurt (and Chris Colfer) to pieces, I always enjoy watching Jayma Mays, and Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester is absolutely detestable. *grin* But Kurt and Emma weren’t in the show nearly enough to keep me watching. The teacher’s wife also annoyed the patience out of me.

After all that time, I’m watching the show again because people at work watch it and it’s nice to join in the conversation, and because my brother remembers to tune in.

It seems like Glee has developed its groove, or however you’d like to express it, and got over the blahs when it first premiered. The episodes seem more engaging than before, although I still find myself drifting away in thought at times. (Distracted by my own thoughts while watching tv? Inconceivable! The reason I watch the boob tube is to get away from my own mind!)

I do like to see what songs they cover, always hoping they’ll do something that I love. (Unlikely, considering my music tastes… definitely not the Top 40. Although they kind of did a Yeah Yeah Yeahs song after the Super Bowl.) Surprisingly, some of the songs they’ve done I end up liking much more than the original recording. I’m mostly thinking of Rachel singing Katy Perry’s “Firework” here. Katy Perry’s version I find blah, but Rachel’s is a nice, listenable song.

I don’t know though, dedicating 45 minutes a week to a show where the only thing I get out of it is a few minutes (if at all) of one character I adore, and the anticipation of what song is coming up next? (I never did see the Rocky Horror episode…) Rachel’s party was funny though… drunk people are funny. (Especially when recounting history!) I think I’ll still stick to watching “just a couple more episodes,” just to make sure.