This Post Contains A Curse Word I Love But Rarely Say Because It Really Offends A Lot Of People

Holy mother of everything that is right with the world, I hate this commercial:



Now let me tell you why:
Because the shallow, materialistic cunt who won't shut up is supposed to be the protagonist here. We, the audience, are supposed to find her outburst charming, cute or even relateable. Because apparently Christmas is about getting what you want, not appreciating the fact that you have friends and family who love you enough to give you anything at all.
I love Christmas. I love the season, the decorations, the food that always seems to come with the season, and I love both giving and receiving presents. I tend to give presents without consulting people's wish lists because I'd rather put some thought into the gifts and give people things that I either find or make with them in mind. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail, but it comes from a place of caring.
Conversely, I don't care what I get for Christmas. It's always nice to get stuff from a wish list, but the only gift I can think of that I wouldn't appreciate is poison. Heck, just a card is enough. It's kind of the point of Christmas, isn't is? Showing your family and friends that you love and appreciate them by graciously exchanging gifts or sending cards or spending time together?
Obviously this bitch cares more about getting new clothes than she cares about her family or the Christmas season.
Therefore, the only way this commercial would be any good would be if it was extended to show this same family on Christmas morning, with everybody happily exchanging presents, with the exception of Materialistic Outburst Girl, because her family put all the gifts intended for her up for sale on Ebay as soon as she finished her little solo.

Be seeing you.
-Sally

I Don't Know What The Point I Want To Make Is, But...

I just read a brief article (more of a blurb, really) in a newspaper from a few days ago about how some politician lady is demanding an apology because when she was a guest on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, house band The Roots played her on with the following song:



I guess Jimmy Fallon and Questlove both aplogogized when Politician Lady got offended, but she's still bitching because NBC didn't apologize to her, even though NBC wasn't told in advance it was going to happen. (It was, according to a quote from Questlove in the article, "tongue-in-cheek and spur-of-the-moment.") 'Cause, you know, when I'm pissed off about something, I demand apologies from larger authorities who have nothing to do with my complaint.
(Non-sarcastic example: When a restaurant in New Orleans Square in Disneyland stopped serving beef stew in a bread bowl, I was bummed out but I didn't demand restaurant sponsor Stouffer's apologize.)
Politician Lady is mad because she thinks it was a jab at her because she's a Conservative Politician Lady. And it probably was, but who cares? Her issue should be with The Roots (whose frontman apologized) and not with NBC (who had nothing to do with it).
Now, here is my commentary about the situation:
I don't watch Jimmy Fallon, I'm not really familiar with The Roots and have only just recently started listening to Fishbone. I'm so uninformed on politics, I can't tell you Political Lady's name (I could if I bothered to look it up, but I don't care that much).
What I wonder is, if no one in the media had made the connection and pointed out that The Roots were playing a song called Lyin'Ass Bitch when Political Lady walked on stage, would she be complaining right now?
I mean, yeah I'm stereotyping, but I have a very hard time believeing a middle aged, conservative politician is familiar with a punk-pop-ska-metal-rock-soul fusion band like Fishbone.
Maybe if everybody who recognized the song had kept their mouths shut, I wouldn't have to get annoyed reading about some politician who's throwing a tantrum because The Roots don't like her. Or whatever.
Is it a free speech issue, maybe? I think so?
At any rate, it's a catchy song. I hope if I'm ever famous enough to be a guest on Jimmy Fallon, The Roots will play Lyin'Ass Bitch when I walk onstage.

Be seeing you.
-Sally

My But It's Been A While

When was the last time I posted on my dear Twenty Pounds Of Crazy blog? I can't even remember. To all of my zero readers, I do apologize. I must have been busy or something.
Probably the most important thing that's happened to me lately didn't actually happen to me. Amanda and Ivan, two of my best friends, got married last month. Here's the highlight reel:



A week ago I went to see a documentary about Fishbone, which was good enough to make me seek out their music. Sadly, I can't afford to buy any of their albums (I'm still unemployed) but I can watch their music videos on Youtube. So far my favorites are Sunless Saturday:



and Modern Industry:



Of course, the reason I went to see the movie in the first place was because I heard Eugene Hutz was in it. (He was, but for less than a minute.) And we all know how much I love Eugene Hutz (and, by extension, Gogol Bordello. ... Actually, I guess I loved Gogol Bordello first and Eugene Hutz by extension. Whatever):



On Halloween I hung out with my friend Dan, who showed me a video of his band (Don Juan Y Los Blancos, who are working on an album; assuming I don't forget about this blog completely, I'll probably write an entry when it comes out. Not that anyone reads this, but at least I'll feel like I helped promote it) playing in Vegas a few weeks ago:



But I think the video I've been watching most of all is Prisencolinensinainciusol by Adriano Celentano. This is what English sounds like to Italians, apparently. And it's pretty much spot on (and the song is catchy as all fuck):



Even better than that, though? This NW5 video. Oh my god, you guys, I'm seriously. It's so good! So good! (Also, I really want to see the movie it's promoting. Der Wixxer, indeed!):



And that's about it for me. Still job hunting, getting back in the mood to watch movies, listening to a lot of music as always. In a couple weeks my mom and I are going to go see They Might Be Giants in Anaheim. I certainly hope they'll play Marty Beller Mask:



But they probably get that a lot:



Be seeing you.
-Sally

As Long As I'm Alienating Everyone...

What's the big deal about Steve Jobs?
I understand why his friends and family are sad; it's always hard to lose someone close to you.
I understand why my Mac-head friends are sad; when famous people I'm a fan of die, I tend to be pretty devastated.
But a friend of my dad's posted something on Facebook about how he was mourning the loss of Steve Jobs, but preceded his comment with "I've never used one of his products, but..."
Okay, then why the fuck do you care? I also have never used his products. And I don't mourn his passing, either. I'll leave the grief to the people to whom the guy actually mattered.
Also, my friend told me that he'd had cancer for a long time, so I can't imagine this was all that surprising (it was surprising to me, but I didn't know 'til yesterday that he had cancer), especially when you take into account the fact that he stepped down from his CEO job recently. Sounds like he knew it was coming.
I saw a headline today that said something about "What's Apple going to do now without Steve Jobs?" Ummm, he already quit. If it was worth worrying about at all (which, if you don't work for Apple, it isn't), it was worth worrying about before he died. They should have already had it figured out by now.
I know I sound heartless but I feel like people are making far too big a deal of it. Everyone is acting like he changed the world and touched us all, but I don't see how. I don't think he affected my life much, other than my intense hatred for Mac commercials and my subsequent distaste for Justin Long and John Hodgeman. And I don't think I can blame Steve Jobs for that; that sounds more like I have advertising executives to blame.
So, to my Mac-head friends and to the people who actually knew Steve Jobs personally, I'm sorry for your loss. I really am.
To the rest of you, get over it. You only think you're sad 'cause you recognize his name.

Be seeing you.
-Sally

I Don't Believe In Nerds

Last night I was Facebook-chatting with my friend Rebekah, who mentioned to me Simon Pegg is a fan of The Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah) Band. She told me this because I'm the reason she's heard of the Bonzo Dogs. I talked a bit about the band and told her that I loved Hot Fuzz and thought Shaun Of The Dead was okay, but that's all I really know about Simon Pegg.
Her response was that he's a "self proclaimed geek."
My response was "Everyone is these days."
Then I got mad.
Now, it's not that I don't call myself a nerd or a dork or a geek all the freaking time. I called myself a "dumbass nerd" the other day when I caught myself singing I Think I Love You to the picture of Eugene Hutz on my computer's desktop. (I do that. It's fun and he's pretty.) I like some things that are considered "nerdy" and I'm sure every other "self proclaimed geek" does, too.
The problem is everyone is a "self proclaimed geek" and I don't really believe most of these people anymore.
First of all, I feel like society should have come far enough by now to have moved past labels like that. Every human being on the planet has some nerdy aspects to their personality and some non-nerdy aspects. Every human being has a lot of different interests and opinions, complex emotions and personal hypocracies. Everyone. Calling a person a geek or a nerd because they have a wide variety of interests (which seems to be the criteria these days) is lazy and pointless. That's not geeky, that's human.
In my opinion, the trendiness of "nerd culture" is offensive. On top of that, "nerd culture" is the patient zero who started the Liking Things Ironically Epidemic, which I absolutely cannot stand and wish would implode and disappear right now. (My profile picture on Facebook at the moment is the quote "If irony is your way of life, you are fucked.") It's cynical and hollow, and it makes me concerned for the future (moreso than I usually am).
I can no longer tell the difference between irony and sincerity, and I hate that. And it frightens me that the people of my generation will soon be the people in charge. I don't want to live in a world where people who have ironic mustaches and "liked it before it was cool" are running the place.
What happens when "nerd culture" goes out of fashion? My mom was complaining the other day that, once something is no longer cool, people act like they never liked it at all. The complaint was inspired by a disparaging remark about "Cosby sweaters" on the radio. (My mom likes Cosby sweaters. She thinks they look warm.) It's a good point.
Everyone acts like the 1980s were a horrible time for everything, but I genuinely liked a lot of what was going on back then; I like their horror movies, a lot of the music, the overabundance of rainbows in graphic design and a lot of the fashion (not all of it; I think big shoulder pads and skintight jumpsuits are ugly). And I think right now the 1980s are trendy again, but ironically. It's okay to like the '80s if you don't really mean it. That doesn't even make sense!
And it's an empty and depressing way to live your life.
So what does happen when liking things ironically and "nerd culture" go out of style? ...
I don't know.
Chris Hardwick will be out of a job, I suppose. I adore Chris Hardwick as a human being and as a comedian, but I do blame him quite a bit for the nerd trend; his website is called Nerdist for crying out loud. As he gains momentum, the more the nerd trend grows. Somewhere out there is a breaking point.
Nah, that's not true (the part about Chris being out of work). He'll keep doing what he does. When the break happens and the nerd trend dissipates, I don't think much will change for Chris Hardwick, because in spite of the fact that he bandies about the nerd label like it means something, he genuinely is one.
Those people out there who really are nerds, nothing will change when everybody tires of nerd culture.
Those people out there who are lucky enough to have completely moved past labeling people and things (sadly, I haven't gotten to that point; I'm trying my damnedest, but I can only think in the words and phrases available to me, and a lot of those are labels) won't even notice the difference.

Be seeing you.
-Sally

Mind Your Business

My business is posting videos that are awesome. Therefore, new They Might Be Giants!!!



This is the first TMBG video in quite some time that isn't animated or made with puppets. Which makes me happy because I like being able to see the band members. Also, most forms of animation frighten me.

Be seeing you.
-Sally

Extra Maximum Double Radical Respekt To My New Neighborhood Jam Rewind

I didn't have computer access on Monday, but if I did, I would have written a post about how it was Eugene Hutz's thirty ninth birthday, and also that Eugene Hutz is freaking fantastic. And it might have gone something like this:

I first heard Gogol Bordello playing in a Hot Pocit while looking for, probably, toys or t-shirts pertaining to Rob Zombie movies. I wasn't coming up with anything, though, and was getting ready to leave when I heard this:



Which led me to nearly attack the lady working there. "What is this? I need it!!!"
"I don't know how to pronounce it? Go-go something?" She showed me the album cover. And, ironically, they didn't have any copies of the album on the rack for sale so I had to go buy Super Taranta from a different store.
And I listened to it a whole hell of a lot for about a week. I also made mix tapes for my brother that had some Gogol Bordello songs on them. And then, in an act of not thinking ahead, I sold my copy of Super Taranta to Amoeba because I couldn't figure out how to sing along with it. (Sometimes I'm stupid.)
Meanwhile, my brother had gotten my mom and stepdad into Gogol Bordello, especially thanks to Through The Roof 'N' Underground, which they just fell in love with. And who can blame them?:



So when Gogol Bordello were going to be playing in Ventura, my mom bought us all tickets and, well, that was pretty much the end of it for me. I kicked myself fifty times for selling that album (then went out and re-bought it. And also bought all their other albums. And the J.U.F. album. And I found a nice lady on the internet who traded me a copy of The Fags' album for a Fantomas album) and furthermore, I've rarely shut up about the band since.
About a week after the concert I turned on ... I don't know, one of those fancy cable stations that actually shows music videos just in time to see the last ninety seconds or so of American Wedding, the first official Gogol Bordello music video I ever saw:



After that, the history of my fandom gets a bit fuzzy. I know I now own a couple movies I never would have even watched if it weren't for Eugene Hutz, the first of which was Everything Is Illuminated:



I find it funny that this trailer is playing a song with the lyrics "You already know how this will end" as it shows you pretty much the entire end of the movie. Also, don't let the trailer fool you; this movie ain't about Jonfen. It's Alex's story.
I think I might actually like Everything Is Illuminated, even though I do fast forward through a lot of it (and I hated the book so much I read it all in one afternoon just so it would be over and I could return it to the library so it wouldn't be in my house anymore). I've certainly watched it more times than Filth And Wisdom:



Certainly not my kind of movie, but I've still seen it three times. And I own it. And I will probably watch it several more times in my lifetime. Because I adore Eugene Hutz and he's in it a lot. And sometimes that's all I need. I own plenty of movies simply for the "I love this actor" factor.
Hee hee, "actor factor."
Anyway, Eugene Hutz is thirty nine now, and that is cool. 'Cause he's cool. And his band is cool. And their music is fucking kickass!!!



Be seeing you.
-Sally