A sudden change of events

Rather than start with some vague quote about the absurdity of life, I'll just show you a picture that will demonstrate it.


















Yep. That's definitely a truck with a giant plush woolly mammoth and the movie poster for The Day After Tomorrow plastered on the side of it advertising an ice show over loudspeaker in Tijuana, Mexico.

Way better than any Camus book you will ever read. Trust me.

I went up to Santa Barbara for most of the week. It was a week full of fun, lounging and excellent discoveries, Including a raccoon and its four children, as well as sweet light up cups that look cool when you are looking through them.



The other thing I did was randomly go to Tijuana in the middle of this week. It's something like a 9 hour drive to and from, so, of course this was a great idea.

My friend Alvaro only gets two days off of his entire six week live in nightmare of a job, and, somehow, I have been able to experience both of them, the second being this Tijuana trip. What is there to say besides "Tijuana es golf."


Oh, and screw the people who try to rip you off. Twenty nine dollars for a wrestling mask? What a rip off. Also, here's a tip Tijuana, people aren't as big a fans of Nacho Libre as you think,. So you should probably stop trying to peddle so make bootleg merchandise based on that intellectual property.

As for my other announcement:

I have a job! It's for a gifted kid's camp. I'm a counselor and I have absolutely no information to share about it other than that I got the call today and that it takes place at UCLA.

Anyway, even it if sucks, I'm only going to be there for three weeks. Better than being broke.

In non-completely life based news, I am listening to lots of new music that I like. Specifically, as for my ongoing addiction to indie singer-songstresses, I am currently listening to a woman named Annie Clark. Unlike many of these acts, she can actually play her instruments really well and performs well live.

She reminds me of My Brightest Diamond (both have shared backing duties for Sufjan) except that St. Vincent is slightly less weird and operatic. Equally artsy though.

Oh, and watch this. It's beautiful.


In other news, I find myself morbidly curious with the new Rilo Kiley single, which I have termed their own "Beverly Hills." That's not a compliment by the way. But the whole album can't be that bad, right? It's hard to top a video with porn stars and a funky bass line. Oh well, at least Jenny Lewis is still attractive.

We'll see. I'm considering going up to Birmingham while I'm in the UK to see them in concert. I hope it happens, but I'm only there for five days and a trip to another random city that isn't London might not end up being on the agenda.

Life is good!

Anglophilia

Before I start my argument, I'd like to make a quick post that says that:
A) I have a job
B) I don't have to move to do it, so it is perfect.

Tutor.com finally hired me, but, unfortunately, they give me very very few hours since I am still provisional or whatever. Hopefully I'll be able to move my way up pretty quickly. We'll see though.

Anyway, back to the core of my discussion.

Why are Americans obsessed with British shit? Their movies, their culture, their awful accent.

Granted, they have made some enormous cultural contributions including The Beatles, Monty Python, Ricky Gervais, and various important literary figures.

But this is just picking and choosing, not a holistic argument for British cultural superiority. Either way though, the Beatles stole their music from black people, the Pythons work without John Cleese in the later seasons and in contemporary times has been mediocre, and Ricky Gervais... well, he's been in some pretty crappy movies.

So in appreciating British culture, we should recognize all aspects of it.

Here, I will present some aspects of England that suck.


First: Mr. Bean






Granted, Rowan Atkinson has done some genuinely funny stuff, but his most persistently popular character internationally remains a slapsticky, silent, stupid, and genuinely unoriginal character that makes a MadTV skit look like Citizen Kane. Awful.


Benny Hill:





As ironically funny as this guy can be, I feel I can genuinely say that global culture is not any better for his stupid, contrived and derivative brand of comedy. Terrible. Why are British people considered smarter and more sophisticated than us again?

Their accent.


This is probably a controversial statement, but British accents are more amusing to me than attractive or whatever the hell they're supposed to be. Why should someone be complimented for their accent? They didn't work for it, it came naturally. It's stupid. People say that their version of English is more "proper" but it's just different just like any other version of English. This is perhaps the most prevalent form of illogical Anglophilia, and, to me, one of the most annoying. For the sake of equality, I usually go out of my way to make British people feel stupid for their funny way of talking.

Imperialism.



These assholes set many, many countries up for a historic path of instability, violence and dependence. Although British wasn't the only country to do so, they were one of the worst perpetrators of it. What a bunch of jackasses. Who are the savages again?




Also, their food is terrible.

And finally, there's this.



Oh, God. Why?

That said, I'll be arriving in London on August 27th. I'm sure I will begrudgingly enjoy it. Even though it is stupid and expensive.

There's more than meets the eye to me

Besides completing a mock tutor session, I haven't done much in the recent past that is particularly noteworthy. (By the way, that went well. Maybe I'll be able to make some money after I graduate and while in Spain) Nonetheless, that won't prevent me from writing a long post about nothing in particular. First thing is first.

So, I saw Michael Bay's Transformers yesterday, and, overall, I enjoyed the event and was incredibly amused by the so called "movie." Despite this, I can't help but feel that even with a running time of over two and a half hours, the movie could have used with less humans talking and more robots fighting. Surprisingly, the Shia Lebeouf guy wasn't entire awful. I'd have to agree with Shalom though when he said that, unlike other "everyman" actors like Tom Hanks, this guy isn't exactly likeable or charming. He gets the job done though.

As for random Australian chick, Anthony Anderson, Bernie Mac and Jon Voight? Why? The resource spent on these actors could have gone into valuable robot fighting time.

Unsurprisingly, Transformers, with an enormous cast of mostly hackneyed and flat characters, is a movie that plays on racial stereotypes and expectations as a shortcut for character development and understanding. I'm looking at you Tyrese and annoying Puerto Rican guy. Oh, and Bernie Mac, do you really have to use the word "mammy" to refer to your fictional mother? Awesome. Surprisingly, however, the movie also choose to do this through one of its robots.

Introducing, Jazz, the first black Transformer. What a huge step forward for civil rights.



Black people are good at music, so his name is musical! Cool, huh?
At least they made him a good guy and gave him the ability to transform into a sweet car.
I couldn't really figure out what this robot's special abilities were besides mouthing off as well as a propensity to use urban slang. Also, like any black character in an action movie, just as you are starting to get to know him and like him, he gets killed. At least he's saying something smarmy at the same time as he's doing it.

Upon coming home, and further researching the topic, I was delightfully surprised to find out who voiced everyone's favorite black robot. Remember this guy!?

That's right. Eddie Winslow from Family Matters. It could be worse, I guess. You could have won an Oscar and then be starring in something like Daddy Day Camp. You can't exactly say that that the mighty have fallen on this one.

I think I can rightly say then, that Transformers is the best almost three hour long toy commercial I've ever seen. Also, product placement is awesome.

I have more to write about other movies, but that's it for now.

Bye.

Not a narrative post, but a few things worth reading

Illumination regarding the Catholic concept of the trinity:

"It's sacreligeous, but I always thought of it as Holy voltron."

May Shalom rest peacefully in hell after the apocalypse he incites.

Well, I'm still pretty bored, but I have set before myself the goal of reading a lot of the bible and further educating myself in regards to religion as a whole, but Judeo-Christianity specifically. I feel that I am grounded well enough in my spiritual beliefs, but I could probably stand to learn a lot more specifics in terms of names, dates and locations. Also, the bible is kind of funny.

Since I probably won't be getting a job this summer, I've also considered gaining some sort of practical skills in order to help me gain employment after graduation. However, because I am wasteful and frivolous, I've decided to learn more Japanese instead. Most people, upon finding out that I've been to Japan before, think that I miraculously gained the ability to speak Japanese. I used to think so too, at least to a very small extent. The more I take these computer lessons the more I realize how wrong we were.

On another note, upon finding out that one of my favorite bands, Camera Obscura, are on a Spanish label, I started investigating the other label's artists and was delighted to find Spanish-speaking, upbeat equivalents to my almost-favorite band. Enjoy a single by "La Casa Azul," a fake band who effectively mix the sunniness of 60's pop with the flamboyance and production of the seventies! Also, the white people singing in Spanish reminds me of Mexico. I guess both countries aren't too different.

Jealousy

This is one thing that you should be jealous that I got to see.









Here is another.

A summary of things

I have some things on the horizon, and some recent events that I will share.

On the horizon:

Re-taking my driving exam
Perpetual unemployment
Sleeping

Recent events:

Signed up for Netflix
Perpetual Unemployment
Boredom
Went to Santa Barbara
Boredom
Going to the Spanish Consulate three times to attempt to get my student visa

The last event was an excellent introduction to the workings of European government and civil society. I'm taking two poli sci classes on the subject, so I'm sure that'll help me understand why they are so lazy.

In unrelated news, I didn't get to watch Live Earth live because another music event involving music I actually enjoy happened at the same time. Also, I am not always at my computer. What I saw on Sunday seemed okay. Spinal Tap was not bad, and The Police sounded better than I remember. As always, unnecessary live collaborations with rappers continue to be unnecessary.

PS: I'm leaving for Europe on the 27th of August. I'm pretty sure I'll post stuff here although if I don't that's probably a good sign of my being busy. Although it could also mean that I am already bored with the idea of a blog.

PPS: I am already bored with the idea of a blog.