Random Thoughts ISBH Ed.

I feel like I haven't had a real and meaningful conversation with somebody in ages........so that must mean it's time for RANDOM THOUGHTS IS SPRING BREAK HERE EDITION......How I Met Your Mother is a good show for two reasons....1)You know the two characters are going to get together (umm see title) yet they do a good job of making you care how...2) NPH. I mean as I type Doogie is singing karaokee. GOLDEN.......To further my first point....see, it's not like Rachel and Ross when we were like "whatthefuckeveralready we know they're going to end up together and we don't give a shit anymore just keep giving us stupid Joey and Chandler jokes"..................Japan is about to beat Cuba in the WBC......and I only just checked to make the point that nobody gives a crap.......just give us the MLB season already.....It might be late but I just want to say that Jon Stewart did a good job hosting the Oscars.....................I thought I had more to randomly think about............................ummmmmm.....well..........I guess not.

Baby Baby Baby

So I've made attempts at writing my take on pet names but every time I just throw away what I wrote. It's difficult for me because I sort of keep going back and forth on the whole topic. For most of my days I have been against the idea of pet names (ex. honey, baby, sweetheart) and I've even gone as far as swearing that I'd never use them, but when everyone around me rolled their eyes and doubted that I would be able to steer clear of pet names I started doubting myself as well. The problem is that most people in our culture go through that phase where everything that is typically romantic in our world is in actuality anti-romantic, so I thought that perhaps I was just going through that phase. Still, if it was just a phase why was that feeling embedded into my attitude for so long? Obviously this wasn't just a phase. It was something that I thought long and hard about and was honestly and completely against. The question remained though. Why the hell am I so against pet names? Ultimately the use of pet names is innocent. They are generic nicknames you use for the romantic partner (I'm so damn politically correct sometimes). Recently one of my best friends, a wicked pet names user explained to me the "connection" you share with a partner when pet names are used. This friend's explanation made me wonder if it was just my typical fear of relationships excuse that was working here, but I don't think it is. In this case that excuse would be the easy way out. The fact of the matter is that underneath this thick skin there is this romantic that lives in me, and it's this romantic side of me that made me realize that it was not the use of pet names that bothered me it was the actual pet names being used that bothered me. My concern lies in the generic pet names because, well, they are generic. I maintain with all that is me that I will not be a regular user of the pet names baby, honey and sweetheart but I concede that I probably will be lead to use pet names one day, but rest assured that there will at least be somewhat of a sense of originality with the these words, because after all they will be helping to establish a connection between whomever I share a relationship with and myself, and there's no better way to do that than with something that is exclusively between us.

But I refuse to do that whole tone and pitch change deal...I mean, you know, I'll at least try not to....................

Informer

Many writers make unfair general statements to make their points more dramatic and give them more power. While this can be very irresponsible I really see no other way to say what I'm about to say. Matisyahu is exactly what is wrong with my generation. Now forgive me if I come off as a little harsh but I'm really annoyed by this guy and his fans. I just finished watching Matisyahu perform on the Cone Zone, and he just plain sucked. SUUUCCCCKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And what really got me was how crazy the crowd went even at the mention of the guy. The thing is Matisyahu is popular for one reason and one reason only; he is an extremely visible character out of his element. But it doesn't matter that he sucks at it. It doesn't matter that he's downright awful at it. All that matters is that he's a white Hasidic Jew doing reggae. And that's what's wrong with us. Our whole goal is to put the traditionally uncool and make it cool despite talent or ability. I can't get why this is acceptable. See, in the past when blacks had caused the evolution of jazz into rock n roll, the next step was for white people to give it a shot. The difference back then was that there were people like Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Elvis, Roy Orbison etc. who were actually good. These people went out of their element to create good music. That's acceptable. More recently we can look at the Beastie Boys who entered the hip hop scene as white as white can be, but they were good. Eminem is even sort of acceptable. But Matisyahu just freaking sucks. SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS. I mean he's just horrible, and the most annoying thing to me is that there are better reggae artists out there and these kids who follow Matisyahu could care less, because it's not cool to fit the mold of people who are good at something, but it sure is cool if you don't fit the mold even if you suck at whatever it is you're attempting to do. From the New York Times, "Perhaps Matisyahu's fans aren't familiar with a little-known group of performers who still make great reggae records: Jamaicans." Exactly!!!!!! I mean would you buy a crap painting from a talentless artist just because he's blind, has no arms, and paints with a brush in his mouth (that's not to say these qualities automatically make one talentless) when there is an actual good painting from a completely talented and "normal" artist? My point is there's just no excuse to praise and give so much attention to mediocrity (at best) when there is actual great works out there. Matisyahu is nothing but a Jewish Snow, and let's face it, "Informer" was one of the worse songs to come out of the 90's. I don't mean to single out non-black, non-Jamaican reggae musicians, these two just happen to come in mind. Hell, even Brad Nowell was decent at his reggae attempts, but that's because he got it. He understood reggae for what it was and he felt it and didn't use it as a tool (this coming from someone who is sick and tired of Sublime). I don't know. I feel like I just wrote a whole bunch of crap but somewhere here I'm sure my point came across. One final thing though. I even have more respect for fans of Lincoln Park than I do Matisyahu, because at least Lincoln Park sucks at something that is their own. There is no better alternative to Lincoln Park (besides no Lincoln Park at all). My only advice for LP fans is don't waste your money on them when all you have to do is buy a single and you own every song they've ever recorded.

I Don't Want To Wait For Our Lives To Be Over

So in order to deviate from the relationship theme that this blog has taken, I decided to throw in some variety by starting a new ongoing series of entries in which I analyze specific articles of popular culture that are either current or that I grew up observing. These will be things like bands, songs, albums, books, movies and television shows...

I just barely missed out on having Beverley Hills 90210 impact my life. By the time I was old enough to be aware of the cultural significance of television shows the gang was in college and… well, no good teen show is worth anything after the characters have left high school (with the obvious exception of Saved By The Bell: The College Years).

On that same note, but other extreme, I was too old to be greatly affected by The OC, though admittedly I had enjoyed a few episodes, mainly due to the hotness that is Rachel Bilson and the excellent performance of Adam Brody. My point, somewhere implied within these words, is if the OC is today’s 90210 what exactly was my 90210? Unfortunately the answer is Dawson’s Creek.

The Creek fit the formula perfectly; stick white teenagers in unrealistic over dramatic situations and soundtrack it with the trendiest music of the time. The show did try to deviate from the formula a little. The town in which the characters dwelled, Capeside, was not the rich upper-class town ala Beverly Hills and Newport, rather it was simply upper-middle-class. The center of the show was not the oustsider coming in (i.e. Brandon and Brenda Walsh, Ryan Atwood), but she still existed (Jen Linley). Instead the center of the show was a born and raised local, Dawson, who was surrounded by the heart of the entire series, which ultimately was the Soul Mate vs. Lover conflict as told through the triangle that involved Dawson, his best friend, Pacey, and the girl, Joey.

Anyway, I feel like I should list off a few reasons why The Creek had my interest.

1. Katie Cruise…um I mean Katie Holmes… Trust me, before Tom this girl was crazy hot.
2. The characters were supposed to be my age.
3. It’s never a bad idea to keep up with the show that all the girls your age are watching.
4. Joshua Jackson… You got to love a guy who starred in a movie in which he was a little league hockey player being coached by Emilio Estevez.
5. Back then you thought your life was supposed to be that dramatic.

That being said, I only really watched the third season of The Creek. I was way too cool to watch the show prior to that, and it just wasn’t good enough to hold me afterwards. Of course, I kept up with the series by hearing what people would talk about and by catching an episode here and there including the series finale. Now, with all my knowledge of The Creek I have arrived to the conclusion that this third season was the best and most important of the series. I’ll explain.

In season 3, Dawson finds himself wanting to explore life away from his relationship with Joey, but being the worrier he is Dawson does not want to leave Joey facing the world without a solid friend for support. So Dawson asks his best friend, Pacey, to watch after Joey in affect pushing these two together to ultimately grow feelings for each other. Now Joey is caught between the two best friends. Who does she pick the Soul Mate (Dawson) or the Lover (Pacey)? She of course picks Dawson, but of course realizes she made the mistake and in the end picks Pacey. Dawson is this guy who she shares this connection with that she couldn’t possibly have with anyone else, but Pacey is the one she loves. In the end Pacey and Joey sail off in Pacey’s sailboat the True Love.

This was the most important season of Dawson’s Creek because it really told the whole story of the series within a single year. Throughout the series the triangle that we saw in the third season always existed, even when it wasn’t depicted, and even when the characters seemingly moved on and experienced other relationships. The end result of the series (season 6), after everything in these characters lives built up to it, was the absolute final decision that had to be made. Who would Joey pick? And this time, without any real doubt, she picked Pacey.

You would assume that I would comment on the whole Soul Mate vs. Lover debate, and while I do think it is one of the factors that make season three so good I’ll just leave it at that.

The drama that we saw in season three was fantastic. By far, it was the best of the series. Everyone involved (writers/actors/directors) was still very into how they were presenting the story, and they were still succeeding in making every teenager want to live a ridiculous storyline and be twice as mature as they really should be. It was moments like the following that we wanted to live:

Joey: "I've been meaning to ask you something all night. Would you like to dance with me?"
Pacey: "Yes."
Pacey: "How come this feels so right?"
Joey: "I think it was those dancing lessons."
Pacey: "Where did you get those? They're not you."
Joey: "Why? Because I'm just a poor tomboy or. . . because Dawson gave them to me?"
Pacey: "Neither." You see this, this is you. It's not showy or gaudy. It's simple, elegant. . . beautiful."
Joey: "It's my mom's bracelet."
Pacey: "I know."
Joey: "How do you know?"
Pacey: "You told me. Six months ago. You were wearing that blue sweater with the snowflakes that you have. We were walking down the halls at school. I was annoying you as per usual and you said look Pacey I just found my mom's bracelet so why don't you cut me some slack."
Joey: "You remember that?"
Pacey: "I remember everything."

Moments like these don’t happen to high school teens, but seeing them on TV made us want them to happen. As unrealistic and overly dramatic as these moments are I think we should all want and expect them to happen, because they do actually exists outside of television fiction, maybe not as often, but they do occur, and they are fantastic to live through (even if it initially hurts). These are the moments in life that I like to refer to as Dawson’s Creek Moments… and yes, I have had a couple of Dawson’s Creek Moments of my own.