More theoreticality

Another open theoretical letter, or rather just some thoughts.... (another title for this post could be "Dating advices wanted" which would probably be rather accurate) 

Recently, I happened to look through the photos of JW Anderson's most recent fashion show, FW17. This show had many looks which incorporated crochet, which I thought was interesting because I learned to crochet a few months ago. In addition to the crochet-wear, another thing that caught my attention (unsurprisingly) was one of the models in this show - he was quite eye catching! Probably the thing that caught my eye was that he was very blonde like another person who was the subject of a recent post. So, naturally, I had to try and find out the name of this model and after a bit of searching around, I did, and I was quite pleased with myself. Apparently he is German. Also apparently he is a rather new model so he hasn't done very much modeling work so far. I hope that he does more modeling work in the future so that there will be more pictures of him that I can look at because more good looking people to look at never killed anybody, and I'm certainly probably not going to find good looking people to look at on the online dating website. In any case, it makes me wistful over that particular good looking person who was the subject of a recent post and who is also very blonde and could be a model because of his appearance. I wonder if he has German ethnicity, or Swedish, or Danish or Norwegian. Perhaps eastern European. I have no idea. His name is not obviously (or subtly) Scandinavian/German like the name "Mikkelsen" (Danish, as in the actor Mads Mikkelsen) or "Müller" (German, as in the Fußballspieler für Bayern München Thomas Müller) or "Skarsgaard" (Swedish, as in the actor Alexander Skarsgaard) or even "Wilberg" (as in... it goes without saying). I would have mentioned Italian names or perhaps French-esque names but stereotypically Scandinavians and Germans are supposed to be blonde so I went with that. In any case, I know barely anything about him, much less which particular European country his ancestors were from. Although there are some other people who I do know the details of their ethnicity, that's not the subject at hand. 

To the subject of taking initiative, on one hand it would be a good (or perhaps not terribly horrible) thing to do, but on the other hand, why not just let people live their lives and not go intruding and expecting to be given an answer/attention and so on and so forth. Plus, he could possibly be gay, in which case I'd feel very foolish. So, perhaps the opening line could be "Before I go any father, are you gay?" Getting the important things out of the way first... In one way, that would be a good thing to say because then I would have my answer to that but on the other hand it would also be a weird thing to ask right off the bat and therefore probably I should avoid saying that. Basically, the best solution is to just not say anything because I have no idea where to start in a way that would feel genuine to me and also not be terribly off puttingly WEIRD. I don't know if people starting out conversations like that has ever been successful. I wonder how I would react if someone asked me "Before I go any farther, are you a lesbian?" I would probably say no, I guess. (the uncertainty here is not about being a lesbian, but rather about how best to react to a question like that. Another possible reaction could be "Why (insert optional profanity here) are you asking me that?!" or if it were asked by that horrible thing, merely a "FUCK OFF!!!") In any case, if I ever come up with some normal conversation ideas as well as some initiative, I will let you all know how that goes. Ideally it would go well and I would not make an impression of "she is really weird and I don't think I want to be around someone like that." I'm not sure if maybe I already blew it with the hair touching event. It is very possible that I did. I wonder if he remembers that. I don't think I'd mind too much if he does indeed remember that, but I would mind if it caused his impression of me to be "she is really weird and I don't think I want to be around someone like that." In which case, refer to my previous post where I mentioned an apology about the hair touching event. 

I have touched
the hair
that was on
your head

and which
you probably
thought
was WEIRD

Forgive me
It was soft
So blonde
and so dazzling.

(If my former apology isn't good enough, here is another one in a more poetic form. This particular poem structure lends itself perfectly to this purpose. Me writing poems like this actually goes back all the way to the 8th grade when we had an assignment to do such, and the concept caught on and I began to write many, many more. Incidentally, it was also back in middle school when I noticed (although I didn't take particular note of) the very blonde hair and it was eye catching back then too.)
I also have to wonder how much on the scale of weirdness that that poem would be for something to tell him. I feel like it could definitely be pretty far up there. Perhaps somewhat less weird than the previous theoretical open letter, just since it's shorter, but still probably pretty weird. It would be somewhat more relevant though than something like "What do you think about the topic of drug addicts/addiction?" which is something that could possibly lead to an interesting conversation, but on the other hand is also an incredibly odd thing to tell someone who you barely know anything about as a conversation starter. "Hello. I think you are good looking so please talk to me." That one is worse in some ways, one way being that it does come across as rather desperate but on the other hand, is quite blunt about my intentions which is a quality that I value. 

As an aside, I think "More good looking people to look at never killed anybody" should be another one of my quotes, along with "Nobody plans on becoming a drug addict" and "You have nice teeth" and "I only like him because of his eyelashes" and "Full Metal Jacket was a strange movie but it did stick with me, apparently." I think these are some quotes that nicely sum up myself. (I put them in chronological order to the best of my memory of when I first came up with them) Also, an honorable mention to a quote that isn't mine but is one that I like: "Maybe in a few years I'll be a more uplifting person." Guess/Remember who said that? (it is the same person who was the subject of the "You have nice teeth" quote. He said that quote probably about 10 years ago because I remember reading it in an interview that was done regarding the album All the Stars and Boulevards, which is from 2005.)

Album review: Turn on the Bright Lights

Firstly, an errant thought on none other than eyelashes guy: I just watched him commentate on CNN a little bit and had the realization that he seems to be rather reasonable when he commentates and he doesn't yell and shout at/over the other commentators like some do. So I guess that's a nice thing that I hadn't explicitly thought of in the past. 

I know technically you're supposed to do reviews of things (movies, music, tv, etc) that have recently been released but I just do them based on what's new and/or interesting to me in terms of things that I've watched/read/listened to regardless of if I'm 15 years late such as for this review of an album released in 2002 when I was only a small child. 

Now, onto the main topic here. In the sort of recent past, the Killers covered a song called Obstacle 1 by the band Interpol. I listened to this cover and thought Flowers did a good job of it and that the song was interesting. So I ended up listening to the original version of the song which Flowers did quite a good job of mirroring. Generally, covers shouldn't stray too far from the original song. Usually I find myself more amicable towards covers of other songs by bands that I already like rather than covers by other people of songs by bands that I like. Hence, I enjoy the Killers covering Obstacle 1 and Muse covering Please Please Please (which is far superior to the original version in my opinion), but I can't be certain that I'd enjoy, say, some other band/singer covering Mr. Brightside or something. Hopefully you get the idea. In any case, in addition to listening to Interpol's Obstacle 1, I branched out a little bit into another song from the same album (Turn on the Bright Lights - 2002) called NYC. It's an interesting song to say the least. Rather mellow and morose at the same time. Obstacle 1 is a bit more upbeat but at the same time it is also morose. Eventually I listened to the album in its entirety - 11 songs. Overall, it's a morose album. I consider it morose as opposed to melancholy which is a word I use to describe All the Stars and Boulevards by Augustana (plus some of their other songs could be described as such) along with thoughtful which describes all of their songs. Having looked up the definitions of morose and melancholy, the latter means something along the lines of a thoughtful sadness which I think makes pretty good sense to describe All the Stars and Boulevards. Morose means gloomy which is a fair enough description of Turn on the Bright Lights. (huh, both of those album titles are sort of long and wordy) 

Overall, the lyrics of the songs on Turn on the Bright Lights range from slightly weird to very weird. Which in some cases works/isn't a particular detriment to the songs but in other cases I don't think it really helps. I think perhaps the lyrics are just a little too weird for me to enjoy the album in full although I do like a few of the songs off of it. Perhaps it's like the people who like Mr. Brightside and Somebody Told Me and All These Things That I've Done off of the Killers' album Hot Fuss but don't particularly care for the rest of the album for whatever reason. 

So, in conclusion, I'm not completely sold on this album and it didn't jump out at me like "wow, what a great album!!" although again there are a few songs off of it that I like. It's possible that (this is a sentence that would require the subjunctive in Spanish, by the way) this album might grow on me if I listened to it more, but I'm not sure if I particularly want to listen to it in full again. I suppose I like this band ever so slightly more than the Strokes, who I tried to get into but just couldn't find any songs of theirs that I particularly liked even after going through like the first 5 that popped up in search results so which I assume are the most popular. I would've thought that I would have found at least one song in that selection that I at least sort of liked but alas, I didn't. However, Instant Crush (which isn't really a Strokes song though) is a good song. I guess I like (?!?!) the Smashing Pumpkins ever so slightly more than the Strokes because there are about 5 songs of theirs that I know, and I don't know any Strokes songs. Even though I don't particularly like the Smashing Pumpkins, I know a few of their songs and occasionally for reasons unknown (see what I did there?) feel compelled to listen to them - these songs comprising of 1979, Bullet with Butterfly Wings, Disarm, and Today. Perhaps I could throw Ava Adore on this list as well. But that's it. And I don't even like those songs, I just occasionally for some reason feel compelled to listen to them. A trivia is that the intro to the Smashing Pumpkins' song Today is rather similar to My Chemical Romance's song I Don't Love You. I think MCR was somewhat influenced by the Smashing Pumpkins. However, Gerard seems like a nice person but Billy Corgan just doesn't and I think this is part of why I don't like the Smashing Pumpkins. By this point this post has gotten rather off track from the main subject of Interpol to then the Strokes to then the Smashing Pumpkins with an allusion to the Killers thrown in and then to MCR. So this here will be the end of this long winded post.

Poetry

(bad, cheesy poetry, to be specific)

Here are some poems I have composed; they are on the subject of eyelashes guy in an assortment of styles.

"This is Just to Say"

I have watched
the commentator
that was on
CNN

and whom
you probably
don't
care about

Forgive me
But those eyelashes
So long
and so magnificent

A haiku

Eyelashes guy - wow!
I am just fascinated
by those eyelashes

A sonnet (following the stanza structure and rhyme pattern but not in iambic pentameter because I just don't have the energy to put in that much effort.)

Eyelashes guy, I gaze at thee
When on CNN you speak
It is your eyelashes I desire to see
Although your opinions I critique

Your eyelashes are just magnificent
And your eyeballs rather blue
By others much money has been spent
To have eyelashes like you

Your eyelashes drew my attention 

And I what I had to do
Was to research your political affiliation

I'm not a conservative like you

Sometimes you say things with which I disagree

But you're a conservative and that's just how it's going to be

I tried to come up with a limerick, but I couldn't think of anything. [as with all posts about eyelashes guy, I dearly hope he never reads this.] 

pltcs

(The title of this post is the word "politics" but with the vowels removed, kind of like the title of that one song, Thnks fr th Mmrs. As you can see, I am getting creative with my blog post titles now.) 

This post is about partly becoming more open minded (a topic which I think I have discussed a little in the past) and also about being "out of touch." It has to do with politics so if that's not your cup of tea then perhaps don't read further.

As you may know, eyelashes guy does a podcast in addition to writing political commentary and offering it on TV. So I am listening to an episode of said podcast where eyelashes guy interviews a colleague of his who covers politics and entertainment. During the podcast, they ragged on the celebrities who have made an implorement to Congress members urging them to not support Donald Trump basically. Additionally, eyelashes guy has criticized Meryl Streep for the speech she gave recently at an awards ceremony, for which eyelashes guy has received criticism (mind you, on twitter) for. In any case, I was sort of surprised to hear that from him basically that people don't want to hear about politics from celebrities and said celebrities are 'out of touch' and (my quotation marks) "real Americans" don't identify with those celebrities... things along those lines I guess. In any case, people don't have to listen to what celebrities say about politics if they don't want to, but I see no reason why celebrities can't/shouldn't voice their opinions on the matter. Certainly there are some people out there who agree with them. Whatever. I don't remember exactly the points he made or his guest on the podcast so I'll end this part here. I get somewhat disappointed when eyelashes guy says something stupid (or more eloquently, something I disagree with) but I guess it comes with the territory, him being a conservative. So all I can do is just hope that the next political issue he decides to opine on is one where his opinion is one that I at least partially agree with. Who knows. We'll just have to wait and see.

On a sort of relevant topic to the previous paragraph, here are some thoughts about being "out of touch" as people in/around liberal city areas are called. Maybe, another way to look at things is that people out in the sticks of Texas and other Republican areas are the ones who are out of touch with the city folk. I wonder if they have ever considered that way of seeing it - it's always the people in the big liberal cities that are accused of being out of touch (of which I would say that I belong to... I wouldn't personally consider myself to be ashamed/otherwise unpleased with the state of supposedly being "out of touch," but I'm sure there are people who would be more than ready to criticize me for it).  

I'm kind of sick of writing this post about political issues so this will be the end of it. Probably why I don't plan on becoming a political writer or a politician. The subject can be kind of interesting sometimes, but other times or when you've just had too much of it it can be a drag. Particularly when eyelashes guy says something you disagree with. I'm not a professional political writer nor do I claim or plan to be one. However, sometimes the thoughts just need to be put to keyboard. 

An open theoretical letter

to that one guy...

To start off, I apologize for touching your hair all those months ago if you found that weird which I imagine you did, at least to some degree. But I really wanted to touch it and I was probably never going to see you again so I had to do it then and there. Your hair is very nice and blonde and soft. And I'm pretty sure it's natural. It's very blonde.

What are you doing these days? I looked up on the Internet what kinds of things are considered normal conversation topics because I'm predisposed to talking about strange things like murder, drug addicts, various actors/musicians/etc that I like, Law and Order (that's a big one) and a certain political commentator who I call eyelashes guy (because he has long magnificent eyelashes, obviously). So, those are topics that I probably would talk about but have consciously attempted to avoid at this point because I barely know anything about you. But now you know some stuff about me. Although like I said I will try to talk about things that are considered "normal conversation topics" such as what did you do last weekend, or what do you like to eat, what are you studying, or what's your favorite TV show, etc. (Mine, like I said before, is Law and Order.)

I'm quite worried that this comes across as very, exceedingly weird. But my friend says I need to take more initiative and maybe I will have more success with this than on the online dating website which I mostly use at this point as a kind of exercise in people watching for when I'm bored. Also said by this friend is that if someone they sort of knew of from high school contacted them out of the blue, they would probably respond and have a conversation and following this point is that please don't make me regret this. Come to think of it, that's kind of a... loaded statement. If you really don't like me or something or you think I'm just way too weird (which I wouldn't blame you for) then feel free to indeed make me regret this and just ignore it or say something mean back. I won't bother you anymore if you do that although I will be kind of sad that what my friend said turned out not to happen. Oh yeah, another reason that you could possibly decide not to interact with me is that you have a girlfriend already. In which case the aforementioned applies too.

I wanted to lay it all out there because I will admit that I'm... different/eccentric/other similar words, as you possibly may have gathered from reading this. And I didn't want to begin with a pretense of normality like what I expect other people would be like. Even if you do have a girlfriend (or boyfriend if you happen to be gay... that's always a possibility) then I would settle for just being friends because mostly I think you look like a model and I would just like to look at you and theoretically photograph you even if you don't actually date me.

The end. If you found me in some way to be someone that you'd actually feel like talking to, then by all means please do. Or if I'm just too weird for you, I understand and you can just decide not to talk to me. I have barely any idea what you're like so who knows how you'll react to this!

Deryueglaadsdhiecsts

(the title is a combination of the words "drug addicts" and "eyelashes")

I was reading about the movies about drug addicts that I've watched recently and came across this choice line in a NYT article... 
"As the junkie Harry, a wasted pretty boy, he seems kept aloft by his eyelashes, the only substantial thing on his frame."

What a quote!! I don't think I have to spell it out as to why I find this quote quite pleasing to have read. Also, the next sentence: "Superficially, it might be easy to confuse the protagonists of '''Requiem'' with the models in a Calvin Klein Jeans ad of a few years ago."

Here is the review that these quotes came from if you'd like to read it in full.

Also, here is another relevant quote. 
"Did you enjoy Darren Aronosky leading you by the hand to the brink of suicide, only to leave you tottering there above an abyss of despair? If so, you’re a bit weird. But don’t worry, you’re not alone; and neither is ‘Requiem for a Dream’. For more of the same spirit-crushing depression, check out ‘The Panic in Needle Park’, ‘Christiane F.’ or ‘What About Me?’" ~ Jonny Sweet

Here is a short little blurb about the two movies.

I just wanted to put this out there.

Movie review: The Panic in Needle Park

Today I was bored because I don't have anywhere to go and so I've just been sitting in the house and decided to try and find something on Netflix to watch. I at first considered some movie that Vincent had been in a couple of years ago and also co-produced (or something like that) but it didn't have particularly good reviews so I thought it might end up being a waste of time (sorry Vincent). So, I decided to watch another movie in the same vein (no puns intended) as Requiem for a Dream (which I would willingly watch a third time, in fact - other people have considered it to be a movie they never want to see again because it's too depressing or something, but I could watch it yet another time...). This movie was from 1971, nearly 30 years before Requiem for a Dream was made although the book Requiem for a Dream was published I think around that time. This movie also apparently was based off of a book but I'm not aware of any particular details about that book. It took place in New York, on the west side of Manhattan, presumably in the 70s compared to Requiem for a Dream taking place in the Bronx (in the book) or Brooklyn (in the movie). Regardless, it's all New York City. 

There were a number of similarities to Requiem for a Dream (although technically, just based off the movies, Requiem is the one which would have been taking cues from Panic in Needle Park. However, I don't know when the respective books were published so it's possible it went the other way around.) however the movies have distinctively different story arcs/effects. The themes are perhaps not quite as different seeing as both movies are about drug addicts, but I do think they are kind of different. One of the interesting similarities to Requiem is in the beginning, the main male character steals a television to sell at a pawn shop although the particulars are a little different - in Requiem Harry takes his mother's tv (which, we see, has been a recurring event) but in this movie the main character (Bobby, which you have to remember is not the same as Bobby from Law and Order) steals the tv out of the back of a truck. Another particular similarity is a line that the main female character (Marion in Requiem, Helen in this movie) says - Marion is going out to dinner with her therapist in order to borrow money from him and she imagines stabbing him in the hand with a fork and screaming at him "YOU SMUG SON OF A BITCH!!!" In this movie, Helen screams this line (minus the smug part, although I do think that would have fit in her case as well) at a cop who did her a favor but wants her to snitch on her boyfriend. Which leads me onto the next subject here. In this movie, a part of the plot is about the characters' run ins with law enforcement because they're using drugs/dealing drugs/being a prostitute in order to get money for drugs, the like. This isn't as prominent in Requiem for a Dream. There is a pair of cops who are after Bobby and his drug dealing accomplices. One of them talks to Helen multiple times in an effort to get her to turn in Bobby.For some reason, I just couldn't see him as a cop. Maybe it was the way he looked. He kind of resembled pop stars of the 80s. I think it was the hair. Plus neither of them had badges, which I thought was weird. In Law and Order the detectives are always wearing their badges. In any case I just didn't really like that character. He rubbed me the wrong way for some reason. 

I thought this movie had a bit of an anticlimactic ending. It just kind of ended. It didn't have quite as defined of a story arc as Requiem for a Dream does. I guess perhaps the assumption is that in the end the characters continue to live on in the way that they did during the movie. Requiem for a Dream definitely has more of an impact on the viewer, I think. It also has the visual side of things going for it as well - just as far as the way the movie looks, it's rather pleasing even though it's about drug addicts. This movie, being made in the early 70s, does look a bit dated and 70s-ish. Not that that's bad, it just is something to note. 

I went and read some stuff about this movie and one thing said that it was the Requiem for a Dream of its time, which is a pretty good description.