Who Doesn’t Love Shiny Objects?!

I’m not a fashion expert by any means, but I appreciate beauty in any form, ByJuliePie tops and dresses (discussed here by someone who does seem to have fashion expertise) effortlessly fit that description, just as anyone can effortlessly wear these works of art, as you can see at the ByJuliePie Etsy store and Facebook page.

Not only does Julie use ornate buttons, and colorful tie-dyes, but she also uses shiny objects on her one-of-a-kind embellished ByJuliePie tops and dresses. Not just any shiny object, but the shiniest – Swarovski crystals!

The cute tops and dresses burst with Julie’s creativity, and maintain a nice balance of creative artistry and shimmering glamour. What could easily become overwhelming, too-much-going-on, or even tacky never does; rather, everything always seems to remain simply and perfectly pretty yet bold and artistic.

To top it off, she also has adorable doggy clothing! This is fantastic for people who have dogs who like to wear very fashionable and sparkly clothing. You and your dog can wear similar styles, if that’s your thing.

With all the lovely and fun embellishments on the human and doggy clothing, you might think (as I did) that these items must be impossible to clean. But surprisingly, some of them are actually machine washable! The ones that aren't are hand-washable and/or dry-clean-able.

Since holiday shopping time is upon us, ByJuliePie tops and dresses could make for beautiful gifts for friends, and as ByJuliePie says, for “you daughter and your pooch!”

The Deadly Effects on Humans of Sarah Palin’s Book

While watching this segment from last night’s Daily Show, I realized that the adorable young children to whom John Oliver read excerpts from Sarah Palin’s book (Going Rogue) have clearly been watching David Letterman’s series, “Things More Fun than Reading the Sarah Palin Memoir.”

The children’s examples of things that would be more fun than hearing a reading of Going Rogue closely parallel those of The Late Show with David Letterman. I believe my jocularity regarding the young children’s viewing of The Late Show is obvious. However, the analogous reactions formed by the young children and David Letterman and his writing staff indicates a potentially universal human reaction to Sarah Palin’s memoir – a reaction involving a preference for violent destruction, physical torture, and even suicide over being exposed to the intensely boring torture of Going Rogue.

This clearly elucidates the very obvious fact that Sarah Palin is evil and perhaps even dangerous to all humans, but particularly to young children. Won’t someone please think of the children?! Sarah Palin’s perilous evil is even recognized by the Mayans, who, according to David Letterman, states that their calendar does predict that "the world will end in 2012, but not from floods, earthquakes, or fires,” but rather from the threat of a Sarah Palin presidency.

This brings me to another segment from last night’s Daily Show. Simply put, I agree almost whole-heartedly with Jon Stewart. He presents the belief of the conservative media that we non-conservatives hate Sarah Palin because she is pretty, she hunts, and she’s Alaskan. That is clearly not the case at all. I actually want to like her because she is pretty. I know, that’s wrong, it’s anti-feminist, etc, but it’s just how I feel. Also, she looks a bit like my mother, whom I love like my own mother (probably because she is my own mother), so that’s actually another reason I want to like Sarah Palin. I don’t particularly like her hunting, it seems wrong, especially when she hunts from a helicopter. But I can’t really hate someone who eats what they hunt, for as a non-vegetarian, I’m one step away from doing that as well, though I could never kill anything directly…I mean, except for spiders and some other insects. Regarding her Alaskan origins, I certainly don’t hate her because she lives in Alaska – that’s ridiculous. The only reason I might hate Alaskans is that they elected Sarah Palin governor. Other than that, I don’t have any problem with Alaskans. I mean, it’s not like they’re New Jerseyans. Anyway, I can forgive the Alaskans for electing her since she resigned as their governor so she could write her memoirs.

So, no, I don’t hate her for those superficial reasons as conservative news people from the land of Fox News might like to believe. Rather, I hate her for, as Jon Stewart says, her emptiness, her non-substantiveness, “the nothing…a conservative boiler plate mad-lib…delivered as though it were the hard-earned wisdom of a life well lived…It’s…the boasting about [her] straight-shootin’, when [she’s] not straight shootin’, [she’s] just a talking point machine.”

But I also hate her on those occasions where she does have some degree of substance. I hate her for her overly conservative political beliefs. I have no problem at all with people believing things that differ from what I believe, of course, but I do have a problem with people who feel they should impose those beliefs, particularly religious beliefs, on the rest of the world. That is precisely what Sarah Palin wants to do. Things like forcing her pro-life perspective on women who should have the right to decide what to do with their bodies and abstinence-only sex education – these are some of the reasons I hate Sarah Palin.

Another reason I hate Sarah Palin is discussed in this segment from last night’s Colbert Report. In Going Rogue, Sarah Palin does not take responsibility for anything; she blames others for anything that goes wrong. Additionally, Going Rogue is factually flawed, and she can’t even accept responsibility for that; it’s not her fault, it’s the fault of the fact-checkers who dare to bring her false facts to light.

I hope that reading this blog has been more fun than reading Sarah Palin’s book.

SPOILER ALERT: Did Jennifer Morrison Choose to Leave House MD?

As I state in a previous blog posting, there’s recently been talk of Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) partially leaving House MD, expected to only return as a guest star. This departure was confirmed on last night’s episode (“Teamwork”) when she left her husband (Chase (Jesse Spencer)), the hospital (Princeton-Plainsboro), and presumably moved away.

As I suspected, Cameron's departure did not result from any decision of Jennifer Morrison. She talks about her own surprise at the writers' decision for Cameron to leave the hospital in this Entertainment Weekly article. She does imply that the writers are simply remaining true to the character (though she almost evades stating that directly).

I think Cameron’s departure is true to her character; she runs away from things she doesn't want to continue to face. When Amber died, she advised Wilson not to run away like he wanted to, because he could never run away from the memory of Amber or the painful memory of her death. She knew this because she had run far away when her first husband died, but no matter where she is, the memories stay with her.

So it isn’t at all surprising that Cameron would run away when her marriage with Chase fails, or that she would run away when she realizes she can't face what she sees as House's and Chase's remorseless immorality.

Speaking of morality, I’m very happy to see (in the same article mentioned above) that Jennifer Morrison will be paid for the rest of the season even if she’s not in it, since she clearly did not expect to be (partially) written out of the show.

I’m rather sad to see Cameron (the character) and Jennifer Morrison (the actress) partially leave House MD. This does not contradict what I’ve said in the previous blog posting (mentioned above), where I have stated that I would rather see Cameron go then Thirteen; that does not mean that I do want to see Cameron go, and I heart Cameron, but I heart Thirteen more. Anyhoo, Cameron adds elements of morality and compassion that are somewhat (or in some cases very) lacking in other characters (whom I also love), and I think that added some balance to the show. Hopefully her occasional reappearances will suffice. But as I have said in that blog posting I mentioned above, I would be a lot more upset if other characters (like Thirteen) were to leave. So overall, I’m happy.

I Heart the Beach

There is nothing quite like the beach on a warm autumn day, with the sun shining in the perfect clear blue sky, and the water glistening in the sunshine. As the tide comes in, the approaching waves sparkle in the sun, and as they crash gently like tiny tsunamis on the shore, the peacefulness of it all fills my soul. The sound of crashing ocean waves is the most wonderful sound in the world. I feel healed by the ocean, the soft sand beneath my feet, the warm breeze brushing past me, and as I breathe the freshest air, smelling the clean fragrance of the first warm day after a stretch of cold days before it, I’m filled with soothing, blissful elation.

I would want to live at the beach, if, you know, there weren’t actual tsunamis and hurricanes to be feared.

The Arrogance of Shinedown

(Originally written as an email on April 25, 2009)

I was watching the VH1 Top 20, and the annoying man who hosts it [Jim Shearer, who’s become less annoying since this was written] was introducing Shinedown’s “Second Chance” video. He says that the lead singer [Brent Smith] has said that their newest CD (The Sound of Madness) is not only the best CD Shinedown has made, but it also compares favorably to any other album in musical history.

Wow, I can't believe I own the greatest CD ever recorded; that's pretty amazing haha. It sounded like Jim Shearer might've been exaggerating what the shiny man said. I hope he was, because really, that's a little bit arrogant. As Jim Shearer sarcastically said, The Sound of Madness is clearly better than albums of artists like The Beatles, Michael Jackson, etc (I’m loosely paraphrasing).

Omg, Jim Shearer was not exaggerating at all. Brent Smith did say those things. Maybe he was just really excited about their shiny work.

I think I do agree with Brent Smith in that The Sound of Madness probably is the best CD Shinedown has made thus far, and it is a really good CD in general. But clearly the greatest CD ever recorded is either Fallen (Evanescence), 21st Century Breakdown (Green Day), American Idiot (also Green Day), Breakaway (Kelly Clarkson), The Black Album (Metallica), S&M (also Metallica), or The Fifth Symphony (Beethoven)…

Pink’s Abusive Lyrics

UPDATE: December 5, 2009
Thanks to Tiger Woods and his wife, this blog posting has more relevance now! See what I write here for why.

(Originally written as an email on August 12, 2009)

I was kind of liking that Pink song, "Please Don't Leave Me," although I vaguely noticed something a little abusive about the lyrics. So today, I listened to the lyrics, and holy crap, either Pink is an abusive POS, or maybe she is singing from the voice of an abusive POS. But the lyrics are clearly the words of an abusive POS.

I was kind of thinking at first that maybe she's just reacting to an abusive POS, but she says things like "I don't know why I’m so obnoxious, something about you makes me act that way" and "You're my perfect little punching bag"....What an abusive POS.

I hope she's just singing from the abuser's voice...I like a lot of her music, including that song, lol. Also, I like her, or I did anyway.

(I wrote another email about a half hour later)

Um, so maybe Pink is not an abusive POS. Someone told me to watch the video, which shows her trying to kill her boyfriend but then sings all sweetly, "Please don't leave me.” I know this description sounds just as terrible as I thought the lyrics were, but it's funny-like, and very clearly showing the irony of it.

A couple of people informed me that it’s an homage to a movie called Misery, which I have not seen. As one of those people notes, Pink is a funny girl, and so the lyrics and video are intended as humor. I probably should have realized that.

In this video, Pink explains the meaning of the song, and here she says that she and her mom are both a**holes, but they're also loveable, and have the whole "go away...no come back" kind of personalities.

Anyhoo, the lyrics are still the things abusive people would say, but I do like Pink and her music, and that song is good, and she is a funny girl, and I do see the intended humor.

Hmm, here's an interesting thought: If a man were singing it (let's say Chris Brown, i.e. a known abusive POS), and Pink (or Rihanna, or any other woman) was the recipient of it, I wonder if anyone would say it's funny...So yeah, while I see the humor and I still like Pink and while I’m no longer feeling that she's an abusive POS (because of the humor and obvious irony in the video), I’m still a bit uncomfortable with the lyrics. Maybe I should see this movie Misery...

Evolving Perceptions of Lady Gaga

My hatred of Lady Gaga (whose real name is Stefani Germanotta) was immediate, from the moment she entered my consciousness. She is just a wannabe Christina Aguilera (whom I love, and whose talent is unquestionable; if there was ever any doubt regarding Christina’s talent, her impromptu a cappella performance of “Beautiful” on Saturday Night Live very clearly elucidates her talent), I thought, as I’m sure many people did. So, as I mention in my previous blog posting, I hated Lady Gaga for what I thought was: an obvious lack of originality. I thought she was a derivative and therefore fake pop singer who, beyond her lack, of originality, appeared to lack talent. Another Paris Hilton-like pop quasi-singer, manufactured to sound decent.

I was informed at some point that according to Perez Hilton, Lady Gaga is, in fact, original. Apparently, he provides evidence that Lady Gaga’s fashion precedes Christina’s, so, assuming he is correct (which I do), Lady Gaga is original and therefore is not fake. Yet I continued to hate her, despite the elimination of my perception of her as a wannabe Christina.

Her music itself didn’t anger me quite so much; I kind of like “Just Dance,” though I couldn’t listen to the whole song since it just got annoying. I did (and continue to) like “Poker Face,” but I hated (and continue to hate) “LoveGame.” I also continued to hate her.

My hatred began to change when I saw the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, where Lady Gaga performed “Paparazzi.” Until then, I hadn’t heard the song at all; I occasionally reside under a rock where I somehow manage to (usually inadvertently) avoid any exposure to new music or celebrity and newsly goings on. As I watched the very dramatic performance, I found myself…enjoying it…a lot. This came as quite a shock to me. The song was fantastic. More notably, it became clear that she actually does sing, and her voice is kind of good and unique in that its distinctiveness makes the Lady-Gaga-ness unmistakably recognizable. In addition to her singing talent, I noticed she plays the piano as well. I had seen her perform “Poker Face” on American Idol where it was evident that she actually sings and also plays the piano, but somehow her talent didn’t strike me then; my hatred at the time was too strong because I hadn’t yet learned of her originality and so I still thought she was a wannabe Christina at the time. But at the VMAs, the song and her talent struck me, and I began to realize that she is not only original in her fashions, but she seems to have some real talent too. My hatred was dissolving, and I was beginning to like her.

My hatred further dissolved as I watched her further demonstrate her talent on SNL, where in her second performance of a medley of her songs, she appeared to improvise on the piano and with the singing. I was impressed. I didn’t see the whole episode at the time, so I had missed her talent-displaying performance of "Paparazzi" as well as her rather funny appearance in this funny sketch. Apparently she has comedic talent as well as musical talent.

Then, a few weeks ago, I heard somewhere (probably on MTV or VH1) that Lady Gaga had spoken and performed at a Human Rights Campaign dinner, and then participated in the National Equality March on the mall in Washington DC, and that she had stated that it was the most important thing she has ever done in her career. Upon hearing this, very much to my surprise, I thought to myself “I love Lady Gaga, she is awesome.” I am a huge fan of equality and of not discriminating, and also of GLBT people and their rights, so it truly warmed my heart to hear that Lady Gaga shares my love for the gays. My perception of Lady Gaga was fully transformed. My initial hate-filled perceptions were based on misconceptions. She is a talented performer, and a kind-hearted person.

Since antipathy had turned to admiration and fanliness (if it hasn’t become obvious, I like to make up words), I became interested in how far her talent goes. Apparently, before releasing her own album (for which she wrote most of the music and lyrics), she had been writing songs for other singers. More interestingly, her talent seems to be quite a natural one; she learned to play the piano by ear when she was four years old, and has been writing music since she was 13. She is vastly more talented than I had thought, and is the antithesis of the Paris-Hilton-esque quasi-singer that I thought she was.

Since I now love her, I find that I like her music more than I had. However, I still hate “LoveGame,” both the song and the video, but that could just be because I’m not much of a fan of pornography.

UPDATE December 24, 2009
Since writing this blog posting, my love for Lady Gaga has grown. Since then, I've seen her in a few interviews on the TV, where she appears to be a genuinely kind and sweet human being who loves her fans and always remains true to herself. Additionally, "Bad Romance" in particular and The Fame Monster as a whole are fantastically good. Shockingly, "LoveGame" has grown on me, and now I kind of like the song, though I continue to not like the video.

I heart Lady Gaga.

UPDATE February 1, 2010
As if I didn’t already love Lady Gaga enough, she just keeps making me love her more. She kindly donated proceeds from a concert and from merchandise to Haiti earthquake relief efforts. I know a lot of celebrities do things like that, and I love every one of them.

Lady Gaga’s sweet, genuine kindness pours from her in interviews, including Oprah’s interview, where Gaga said about her fans, “I want them to free themselves, and I want them to be proud of who they are. I want them to celebrate all the things they don't like about themselves the way that I did, and to be truly happy from the inside.” She said something similar to that (somewhere, possibly also on Oprah) about the meaning behind “Bad Romance.” She explained that the song is about loving someone for everything he or she is, for all the good, all the bad, and all the things the person doesn’t like about him or herself. She spoke as though these are the things she wants, and, therefore, she read my mind…I think that might just be what every human wants, and she captures that perfectly.

If you missed her amazing performance with Elton John at the 52nd Grammy Awards last night, you should watch it right now – it’s fantastic. I was very happy to learn that she won two Grammys last night (during the un-televised portion) for “Poker Face” and The Fame. I love her so much.

I think a big part of what makes me love Lady Gaga is that she seems to have always felt like a freak and an outsider, and she makes such an effort to keep other people from feeling that way, or from feeling bad about being a freak or an outsider. I imagine most people (myself definitely included) have felt like freaks and like outsiders in some way, and Lady Gaga makes us realize we’re not alone. She is a wonderful human being.

UPDATE: May 23, 2011
The TV, or more specifically, the Fuse, has explained that what I called pornographic in the LoveGame video was an homage to Michael Jackson's "Bad" video.  I guess that makes it less gross, but still...ew.  In Gaga's defense, I think it's gross in the "Bad" video too.  I suppose I'm just too prudish.

Fox News Creates Britney Controversy (EXPLICIT LANGUAGE)

(Originally written as an email on March 29, 2009)

The following contains explicit and/or suggestive language, references to illegal drugs, and may contain animated nudity. Viewer discretion is advised.

I think this is funny....You know that Britney Spears song "If U Seek Amy"? I learned yesterday from the VH1 Top 20 and from Fox News that it's meant to be "IF u see ka(y) me" --> "F * C K Me." (That’s right -- I’m censoring the explicit language even though I warned you about it.)

It's rather funny that Fox News brought my attention to this, because I certainly wouldn't have noticed and when they did bring it to my attention, I had to think about it to get it. The people on Fox News didn't notice it either until it was brought to their attention, and they also had to think about it to get it.

If it takes these presumably intelligent adults on the TV and a slowly sharp-witted linguistics major like myself so much effort and attention-bringing to get it, why would they think innocent kids will get it? They actually say on there that kids are more savvy and will get it...I feel like that's not true, I think the innocent kids and innocent teens wouldn't get it, but the slutty teenagers who are already screwing each other or the kids who are already familiar with the cursed and evil f-word might get it, maybe.

I think it's pretty stupid for them to bring so much attention to it, since they're defeating their own purpose really. Furthermore, I think it's stupid to complain about this song's cryptically and barely verbalized explicit language rather than its slutty messages -- I mean, if they're going to complain about something.

Also, if they are complaining about the slutty messages, then they should complain about countless other things too -- things that are a lot more explicit than that -- because those are a lot less cryptic. It's also funny how they don't even mention what I think is an explicit drug reference, where Britney sings, "Is she smoking up outside?" Doesn't "smoking up" refer specifically to smoking the weed? In my day it did. That seems a lot more wrong to me.

Regarding my not getting of the F-*-C-K Me thing, I did actually sense that there was something sexual in the phrase "if you seek Amy," I just couldn't figure out what it was. I definitely noticed the weird/wrong grammar of "All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek Amy."

It really is pretty funny, once you get what she's saying, particularly the whole big section where she says "If you seek Amy tonight" repeatedly.

Anyhoo, I really don’t think kids would get it, and if they do get what the word is, I think there are far worse things they could hear. Regardless, I think it’s a great song.

While on the topic of music and lyrics, but otherwise completely unrelated, I think that Katy Perry and the man from Hinder should marry each other....They both sing about still being in love with an ex when they're with someone new ("Thinking of You" and "Lips of an Angel").

I hope you're not disappointed in the lack of animated nudity...I said this "may" contain it, like the disclaimers all the fox cartoons had for a while after that whole brouhaha Janet Jackson’s booby caused.

(On April 16, 2009, I wrote another related email)

Omfg! I f'ing heard “If U Seek Amy” on the (FM/terrestrial) radio, and they f'ing bleeped the "If U Seek Amy" part!!! Holy mother-f'ing sh*t, how the f are they bleeping the cryptically encoded cursing, but not bleeping the very obvious and clear drug reference, "Is she smoking up outside"?! That is so f'ing f'd up!

So it's wrong to publicly broadcast a barely understandable curse word, but it's perfectly okay to make smoking weed sound cool? I mean, the whole song is overtly and non-cryptically about how awesome Amy is, and the song suggests that Amy smokes weed, so obviously it's really cool to smoke the marijuana. You know that's how stupid kids (and stupid adults) will think. (Yes, I am suggesting that people who think it’s cool to do drugs are stupid.)

Furthermore, how the h*ll is it okay for that Christina wannabe Lady Gaga to sing (in "Just Dance") all about being so drunk on red wine that she doesn't know where she is or how her shirt got turned inside out? So the FCC apparently thinks it's good to encourage stupid kids to smoke the weed and get drunk enough to be date raped, right? But it's not okay to creatively and cryptically spell a profane word, so cryptically in fact, that reasonably intelligent adults don't get it even when it's brought to our attention, because even then we have to really think about it to get it. Britney is essentially censoring herself; it’s excessive for the radio to further censor her. Ironically, bleeping it really just draws attention to the profanity; it draws as much attention as Fox News complaining about it does.

Grr, this makes me so angry. I should smoke weed and get drunk and then tell people to if you seek Amy, because that's what the radio told me to do, and Britney, Amy, and Wannabe Christina are cool and I want to be just like them.

F*ck!

[It should be noted: I have never, nor will I ever part-take in any illegal drug use.]

[Please see my next blog posting about Lady Gaga and why I was wrong about her regarding my statements implying that she is a wannabe Christina Aguilera.]