Singin' in the Rain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXQ-MRmROQ&feature=related
(ignore the french bit- the actual song is in english.)

and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmCpOKtN8ME&feature=related

and possibly my favorite,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW02c5UNGl0&feature=related


I don't think I could ever express just how much I love this movie. If you've never seen it, I really recommend it. It's essentially the perfect American Screen Musical- funny, charming, upbeat, and a little bit ridiculous. But it's not just your generic feel good movie- the acting, first of all, is PHENOMENAL. Secondly, the script is pretty much perfectly crafted- all the characters are true to form in their dialog while remaining dynamic, a difficult feat in a comedy. Third, the entire concept is framed in such a way that the hugely self indulgent song-and-dance bits are still pertinent to the overall theme, culminating in the final scene where the movie advertises itself, breaking the "fourth wall" like it kind of did in the beginning. \
MOSTLY. Cosmo Brown. Lena Lamonte. That's all I have to say.

Wat Pomp

This is pretty much the greatest thing I have ever seen in all of my life

EVER.
Die Antwoord is without a doubt my favorite band. They're from South Africa, made up of the Ninja (crazy looking tattooed rapper,) Yolandi Vi$$er (blonde, eyebrowless, inbred lookin girl,) and the mysterious DJ HI-TECH (I guess he's the other guy.) I listen to this song every cahge I get- it's just a huge embrace of the bizarre. I definitely encourange anybody who's interested to look up the rest of Die Antwoord's music. Enter the Ninja is pretty great. Evil Boy, another single of theirs, is TOTALLY NSFW, but a banging song nonetheless.
Go forth and conquer, music lovers.

Riot Grrrl.

http://vimeo.com/21868232

I’m not a huge fan of VCU Basketball, or really sports in general, but I happily tuned in to the past two games. I was really excited for our team to make to the final four, so even though we lost to Butler, I was still proud. However, I was not proud at all of the idiocy that went on in the streets afterwards.

I understand being excited that we won. Last week, when we made the final four, I, like many, flooded the streets in celebration of our awesome achievement. However, once the crowd got so massive that we were blocking the streets and the authorities had to be called in, I took that as my cue to leave. As I tried to make it back to my building, I passed crowds of people chanting “fuck the police” and lighting things on fire, and when I got to my dorm, I was unable to cross the street because the police, wielding cans of mace, were blocking the way. All this because we won a game? Again, last night, I went out to get a bite to eat. I was unable to even get onto Broad Street, because people (again) were destroying property and being violent. The police let off tear gas, causing a huge flood of people to come racing back down the street in a mass panic. I managed to duck away inside before the chaos got too hectic, but it was really terrifying. People were being arrested and getting hurt. VCU’s reputation is under attack because of the antics of some over-privileged fuck-the-system stoner white boys who just want a fight, and not justice. I’ve had my fair share of strained encounters with the police. I used to be a real trouble maker and vandal, until I realized how idiotic I was being. What was I fighting for? In this video, there’s a shot of a girl standing in front of a line of police, arms outstretched in peace signs a-la Tiananmen Square. I’m sure she thinks she’s valiant, brave, revolutionary, progressive. Probably lots of people who saw her think the same. But really, she’s an idiot. This isn’t a war protest, this isn’t a struggle for civil equality, and this isn’t a fight for human rights. This is a bunch of drunk, angry, stupid teenagers acting like fools in the middle of a street, destroying things and becoming so violent that the police had to be called in. All this because we won a few games? Because we lost a few games? I don’t see riots like this happening any other times we play. Let’s be honest- most of the people out there weren’t thinking about the VCU Basketball team or even VCU at all. They just wanted a riot, and a riot’s what they got. It makes me sad that everyone was out there last night, protesting nothing, hoping for nothing, just looking for violence, when there’s so much more to hope for in this world. Where are all these students when we’re declaring unofficial war on Libya? Where are all these students when American legislation fails to represent American population? I would take tear gas for political reform. I’d gladly take rubber bullets to end human suffering. Would I do that for Shaka Smart? Absolutely not. So why the hysteria?

There’s another shot in the video of the policemen in their masks- maybe the viewer is supposed to feel fear, intimidation. Maybe we’re all supposed to get greased up in the paint of war, screaming Fuck the police and Remember Kent State! The police aren’t the enemy here- they’re heroes, who have to be away from their families on a Saturday night, facing hundreds of angry people who want nothing more than violence, praying to God that they don’t have to do what they have to do. Last night, I was ashamed to be a VCU student. I only hope that future experience leads these young people to understand how serious their actions are, and that they will learn to act when it really matters.

Furries

My boyfriend's mom is a really talented seamstress- she's designed costumes for the Virginia Stage Company countless times and has worked in lots of Broadway shows like Wicked, Spamalot, and Grease. Needless to say, her kids always have the coolest outfits. A few years ago, she made hats for everyone that looked like their favorite animal. My boyfriend has a fox hood- it's got big fox ears and looks like real fur (it's not, though.) They wear them when they go skiing every winter. As my christmas present, she sewed me this beautiful tiger hood to match my boyfriend's. I know it sounds weird, wearing a hat that looks like an animal head, but they're really exquisitely made and are so warm that I don't mind the funny looks I get. Still, one time I was at shafer with my man, before I'd gotten my tiger. He let me wear the fox hood and as we were getting ready to leave, a guy and his friend approached us and asked if they could ask me a question. He said, "I don't want to offend you, but....
are you a furry?"
I didn't know what a furry was, and told him so, and he thanked me and left, but I of course needed to know what on earth a furry was, so I went straight home and googled it.
Turns out, furries are people who dress in full body animal suits (like mascot suits, with a big removable head and everything.) There's a few sub-groups of furries, but in general, they're people who like the idea of anthropomorphic animals, many of whom create a "fursona," or animal identity. There is also, of course, the furry fetish, where people dress as animals and have sex, or find sexual pleasure in the idea of a human-animal hybrid.
I was kind of terrified to wear my hat after that, but in the warm weather I don't really have to worry about it. Ever since then, however, I've been much more aware of furries- I'm not a furry, nor is my boyfriend, nor do I know any in real life, but I think it's a very different perspective than we usually see, and it's also one that's very interesting and suprisingly deep-rooted.
If you were a furry, what do you think your "fursona" would be? What do you think of the furry culture? Do you know anyone who's a furry, or are you perhaps a furry yourself?

This is a picture of my basset hound, Sherman, wearing the fox hood. What a cutie.

Sucker

Her dark skin sank into the frothing waves like a drop of ink onto paper, the water beading on her smooth shoulders like millions of shards of glass. He reached out to her, but she was already gone. The sweet stench of seaweed rushed to sting his tear-filled eyes as he slowly turned his back to the sea.

Alas. She was gone, but she was all around him. Even the gaping mouth of last night’s dinner staring blankly at him from its newspaper wrapping seemed to shape her name- Rosie. Pictures she’d drawn in the dust on his coffee table; wrappers in his pockets from gum she’d asked him to hold onto; tea cups, unwashed, stained with her lipstick-- all mementos of her, and he, a veritable curator of loneliness. He rubbed the stump of his left hand, as if alleviating his aching arm would heal his broken heart, and carefully reattached the hook, fighting back a sob as he remembered how Rosie taught him how to play banjo, prosthetic limb and all. His eyes, swimming with memories and misery, turned to the ocean, scanning the horizon fruitlessly for her silhouette. How long he had lived here, a hermit in a crabbing town, huddled away in a wind-bleached cottage on the coast, alone-- until Rosie washed in and out of his life with the roaring tide.

Days and nights passed like a silent current under still water. His heart, bobbing on the buoyancy of sweet memories and sinking under the crushing weight of loss, became numb to all things. Every night, like clockwork, he would climb into bed and sleep a dark, dreamless sleep. Every morning he would coax aching, crackling bones out onto the beach to watch troughs and crests for any sign of Rosie. Nothing. Just the nasal trill of sea-gulls circling him like vultures, as if they could scent the deadness inside him. Cool autumn turned into frozen winter; frozen winter into rainy spring, until finally the canary beak of sunlight pierced the grey sky above and summer spread itself over the rocky coast like a thick pat of butter. The beach became peppered with fishing boats, swimmers, sunbathers. Like always, he would scour the horizon for his beloved. Like always, she did not appear… until one day, simply unextraordinary in any other way, she did. The screams of the beach-goers became as a symphony of violins as she wrapped her eight arms around him. He knew they made a funny pair, a fisherman and the kraken, but he did not care- he was happy at last. She pressed him to her heart, her millions of tiny sucker-pads trembling with emotion as stroked her rippling muscular flesh. He breathed in deeply, luxuriating in her scent of brine and Chanel No. 5.

“Oh Rosie… I thought you’d never come back.”

“SQREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.”

“I love you too, Rosie.”

http://www.mediadump.com/hosted-id176-actors-in-character-now-that-is-acting.html

I found this page on stumbleupon, the scourge of the internet. Not only do I think these are some quality photos of some very talented actors, I thought it was a really great idea for a shoot. Alot of times, there seems to be some controversy over the talent levels of TV actors. Some, like Hugh Laurie, fall far beyond the reaches of daytime TV criticism, but others (Thomas Haden Church {is he even on TV?}) are perhaps a little more questionable. To be honest, I wasn't totally blown away by the still shots of some of these actor's emotional portrayals, but all in all, I thought it evidenced some real talent on these performer's parts. It's difficult enough to convey action or emotion without words- depriving the actors of movement through still photography increased the challenge even more. I'm especially interested in how some actors used their bodies much more than others- some just used hands and face (Hugh Laurie) and others (Amy Poehler) engaged their whole bodies. It's something I think is disregarded in acting sometimes- we're so used to just seeing close shots of actor's faces while they rattle off a well sculpted line, we often take for granted the immense talent many of them have.

Queen Elizabeth I's Final Address to Her Parliament

The Golden Speech- reproduced in part here as it was transcribed in its day

To be a King, and weare a Crown, is a thing more glorious to them that see it, then it is pleasant to them that beare it: for my selfe, I neuer was so much inticed with the glorious name of a King, or the royall authoritie of a Queene, as delighted that god hath made me His Instrument to maintaine His Truth and Glorie, and to defend this Kingdome from dishonour, dammage, tyrannie, and oppresion; But should I ascribe any of these things vnto my selfe, or my sexly weaknesse, I were not worthy to liue, and of all most vnworthy of the mercies I haue receiued at Gods hands but to God onely and wholly all is giuen and ascribed. 

The cares and trouble of a Crowne I cannnot more fitly resemble then to the Drugges of a learned Physitian, perfumed with some Aromaticall sauour, or to bitter Pils guilded ouer, by which they are made more exceeptable or lesse offensiue, which indeed are bitter and vnpleasant to take; and for my owne part, were it not for Conscience sake to discharge the dutie that God hath layd vpon me, and to maintaine his glorie, and keepe you in safetie; in mine owne disposition I should be willing to resigne the place I hold to any other, and glad to be freed of the Glory with the Labors, for it is not my desire to liue nor to reign longer then my life and reigne shall bee for your good. And though you haue had and may haue many mightier and wiser Princes sitting in this Seat, yet you neuer had nor shall haue any that will loue you better. 

Thus M^r. Speaker, I commend mee to your loyall Loues, and yours to my best care and your further Councels, & I pray you M^r. Controullor, & M^r. Secretary, and you of my councell, that before these Gentlemen depart into their Countreys you bring them all to kisse my Hand.
F I N I S.

This speech first appeared to me in a standardized post-test in high school. We were asked to analyze some small portion of it, and yet I was so taken with the Queen's eloquence that I actually tore the paper out of the test and pocketed it. I often re-read this speech, not just because of it's extraordinary images and beauty, but because, to me, it embodies the qualities of leadership we look for and yet commonly fail to find in our government. Elizabeth's words seem motivated by honesty and true desire to lead her people. She balances humility with immense strength- she even said herself another time, "I am not a lion, but because I am a lion cub, I have a lion's heart." She acknowledges the lack of power many expected from her, but really, she was a kick ass queen. I know it's difficult sometimes to maneuver the bizarreness of Olde English, but if you put the time into it to translate it for yourself, I think you'll be very pleased with the result.

(Hints to figuring out what she's saying- U=V and vice versa

alot of it, once you figure out the V's and U's, is phonetics.)