Did I mention that they are fun? Cause I can’t emphasize this fact enough. I’ve only seen them live one time, a sickness I intend to remedy as soon as possible. Their live show was beyond perfect. I danced and grooved like I was in highschool again. If there were glowsticks being handed out, I’d have spun em. If there were drugs, I’d have taken em. Anything they touch in a live show is gold. Just to give you an idea of how excellent their live show is, they have a show tonight in Boston as a part of their debut album kick-off tour and I had the unfortunate task of trying to find tickets after the show had been sold out. (almost instantly)

It is impossible to get into this show. Impossible. People aren’t even going to scalp these guys. And why would they?

Two parts dance, two parts electronica, and six parts synthesized heaven, Passion Pit will blow your mind if you will only let them. So please let them.

Jeege out.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/10/whitacre-new-gm-chairman-_n_213611.html

I suppose it speaks volumes about the current state of our economy, or specifically the state of the auto industry that the appointment of a man who knows nothing about cars to the position of CEO of one of our most important auto companies shocks just about nobody.

I don’t know much about the business world, despite the fact that I am as of right now very much a part of it. But the world of art has similar principles to the world of business. Namely, I would not cast someone with no theater experience to play the part of Hamlet. Just as I would not presume to land a lead role in a multi-million dollar film project without a few small roles in feature films prior.

Why?

Because in order to handle a task as daunting as a lead role in a hundred million dollar feature or the part of Hamlet, one must understand the craft! Its just that simple.

Hamlet has depth. Hamlet is complicated. Noone without performance experience would be expected to understand how to mine that character’s depth and draw it to the surface no matter how talented they were.

There is alot on the line in a multi-million dollar film, not the least of which is getting good reviews and building up a fervor for the project. No producer will put a new face on a project like that unless there is a quantifiable amount of data showing that the actor can handle it!

This is simple! Why does GM insist on getting this wrong? The man doesn’t know cars…he has already admitted it. What do they think they are doing? Do they think he will magically get a bunch of new ideas about how to improve the vehicles they have in house, or do they just expect him to sign off on new ideas without any clue as to whether they are good ideas? Because he won’t know. It will be impossible for him to know.

He doesn’t know cars.

But by all means, place him in power. No qualifications? Who cares! As long as he is rich and he’s been a CEO before, I’m sure he’ll figure it out.

That is not the American way. This kind of shit has to stop happening if we have any hope of giving ourselves a better future.

It’s too late for GM, but it isn’t too late for the rest of our companies. Wise up people! Change is not just a hot button word. It’s real and it needs to happen.

And I don’t use the term “complete” lightly. It is total lack of censhorship. I’ve watched this troup do things for television that I have never watched anyone do before. This includes a sketch laying out a deliberate request/plan to kill the president, a baby being shot in the head, and a duo of hunters deliberating about whether to kill another hunter whom they’ve accidentally shot.

Anything for a laugh right?

People who write shock comedy and people who watch it and love it are a very strange breed. As an art form I think it works, if only because oftentimes the artists are making statements against the very things they think are hilarious. It’s anti-comedy. It’s terrifying. It’s brilliant.

Though a bit formulaic at times, WKYK adheres to the oldest theater trick in the book. They approach comedy from the point of view that art exists not merely to entertain, but to educate. Let artists hold a mirror up to society and say, “Hey. This is real. This happens. What are you going to do about it?” They adhere so staunchly to this old mainstay that at times it becomes humorless to point of being simply dramatic. I can’t tell you how many times I found myself staring at the screen in rapt tension, terrified at the prospect of what I was watching. Nearly every sketch leaves you with something to think about. Scratch that; every sketch needs to be thought about. It would be foolish for the viewer to ignore the artists.

I feel as though I’ve come late to a life changing party. I don’t know how much these cats from Brooklyn will effect the future of comedy, but I simply cannot imagine how they will not.

I wouldn’t say that I enjoy watching WKYK. Saying that, would imply that I enjoy watching Hitler rap about his new plans for world takeover (the first bit ever aired by these truly twisted people). No, I experience The Whitest Kids You Know. I wouldn’t say that I like it either. But, I can’t stop watching and neither will you.

A group of men decide to leave life behind for the weekend and travel to Vegas, presumably to let loose for an evening and ignore their responsibilities. Things (of course) go haywire and the group spends the majority of their time in Vegas searching for the groom and trying to remember what the hell happened to them.

During the more humorous moments, it seems pretty clear that the viewer should idolize debaucherous behavior. Its as though nothing that bad can really happen to these men, despite the fact that they’ve made all of the cliche mistakes of a typical Vegas tourist. Yet somehow, true disaster seems to avoid them every step of the way. Its as though they are untouchable. Supermen.

I suppose it’s up to the viewer as to whether this is a good thing. Those with a pre-disposition to condemning the characters and their behavior will no doubt condemn them. While those with a pre-disposition to lust for similar experiences of their own will simply laugh alongside them and leave with a fuzzy warm feeling.

I’m of neither disposition. I’m of the disposition that although its a film with some pretty decent one liners and pratfall comedy, its ultimately a pretty terrible film without much to say about anything. Although, perhaps thats the point?

Unfortunately for those who desire an experience like those portrayed in the film, the stark realities of life are completely ignored, unaddressed entirely. These men are never held to task for some of the things that they become privy to. Everything is just so convenient. It leaves a sick feeling in my stomach to think that there could be creatures like this in the world, romping across its surface and hiding their terrible wrongs from those that love them.

These men should not be idealized, they should be made examples of! In my opinion, the filmakers lost an oppurtunity here to say something true about love and war. All is not fair and we are all responsible for our actions.

We can still laugh while learning from a movie.

A truly original group, TV On The Radio translate their unique sounds seemlessly into a stage performance. The song selection last night wasn’t all that I had hoped for. They went for a much more laid back experience rather than the raucus, barn burning dancefest I had been expecting.

It was a unique show for me in more than just the sounds of the music. This was a show about perspectives. For the first time, I had the priviliege of the “V.I.P.” experience thanks to my girl’s awesome friend from school. We got to experience the high-end club/restaurant that hovers above the stage and the newly opened House of Blues: Boston.

It was posh as hell and a whole lot of fun, but the view of the band was awful and the show experience suffered for lack of it. The company and the experience more than made up for it and I suppose that any experience that you enjoy is worth it for the sake of enjoyment.

I would absolutely see them again and I would absolutely hope the song choices would be a bit more upbeat and wild as the occasional times they touched on their wild side, it was spectacular. People were hungry for it and I’m a bit surprised there wasn’t more from their first two records.

But it was a great show and a great experience. Variety is the spice of life and perspective keeps you grounded.

Tonight I will be treated to a viewing of the dynamic act; TV On The Radio.

These guys have been rocketing in popularity in recent years and have an especially solid sound. Word is that their live show rocks the hizzy.

Full review tomorrow!

In the meantime, a record that I’ve been spinning and enjoying for quite some time now is Camera Obscura’s “My Maudlin Career.”

This is a band that has always played a brand of music that I enjoy, however, this particular record really appeals to me. Lead singer, Tracyanne Campbell, has a sultry and haunting voice that contrasts with the band’s rock appeal. Big crunchy guitars and a swinging beat typically paint each production from this group.

Check em out!

Confucius say, Man who fart in church must sit in his own pew.

A Belch is just one gust of wind,
That cometh from thy Heart…
But should it take the downward trend,
It turns into a Fart

Why do farts stink? So that deaf people can enjoy them also!

Two guys are in a locker room when one notices the other has a cork up his ass. He says, “How’d you get a cork in your ass?”

The other guy says, “I was walking along the beach and tripped over a lamp. There was a puff of smoke, and then a Big Fella in a turban came oozing out. He said, “I am Tonto, Indian Genie. I can grant you one wish.”

And I said, “No shit.”

I think I’ve said my piece.

-Jeege

Old habits die hard.

My family came to the east coast last week and spent some time graduating our oldest girl sibling, Julie. It was a wonderful time and gave me a much needed break from my busy life. I followed that break with a  four day weekend from the company that I work for. I relaxed so much that I became bored! A welcome reprise from what has been a completely interesting and exhausting time for me.

I work in an office environment and a stressful one at that. Stressful primarily because of my horrible boss. I have one of those bosses that people tell you about but that you can’t possibly understand until you’ve worked for one. She’s just…awful. Anyway, I don’t enjoy what I do for 40+ hours every week and I look forward to a time when I don’t have to do this kind of work any longer. However, for the time being it has been a blessing. It pays my bills. All the job asks for in return is my soul.

Good trade off right? Its not like I’m using it!

But in all seriousness, I don’t know how people go their entire lives working in places like this. I balk at the thought of continuing for even another year here. And yet, all across the world there a billions of people who do only this kind of work for decade after decade after decade with little complaint. I don’t understand it. I’ll never understand it. I don’t want to remain a part of it.

But I admire those that do.

These kind of people, these people I work with every day, are necessary. They aren’t freaks. I shouldn’t look down on them because I feel so much more “enlightened” about what is valuable in life. I admire them because their brains just work differently than mine. They see the world differently. They value different things. And they are necessary to our economy and our way of life.

Without these kinds of people, we’d just have a lot of chaos. They keep things in line. They memorize the rules and in many cases help people that don’t understand the rules to obey them! They are important.

I just don’t want to pretend to be like them any more.

I feel like a double agent. While I sit at my desk fumbling through yet another hideously boring assignment and pretending to care immensely about it, my mind wanders. I imagine entire worlds while I’m at work. I memorize parts and think about characters. I create because I want to entertain. Its just a part of me and it always has been.

Just like for these people, nothing else makes sense to them. They would most likely find me silly if they knew the real me. They would certainly think that my motivation has to be money, because that’s what they understand. While I would like to make enough to survive, money has nothing to do with my desire to make art. It’s just a part of me!

And in conclusion,

Everyone should listen to Passion Pit. They’re from Cambridge and they are about to explode in ways unforeseen. I’ve been listening to them like mad even before I moved to Boston and I got to see them live at a local show here.

Superb band. They just got reviewed highly by pitchfork and they’re really going to explode MGMT style.

Check em out, peace!

When I blog, I open up my thoughts (however private they may be) to any people that may want to read them. Maybe my thoughts and their thoughts on some particular issue may be the same. Or maybe my thoughts will spark new thoughts for them causing them to explore some new arena.

So then I got to thinking about what I want to tell my friends and family about the last year or so of my life that they may not already know. Seeing as no one knows much of anything about my life lately, I have a lot of material to work with!

I moved to Boston. Not because I hated Los Angeles or anything about my beloved Long Beach. Quite the opposite really. I love LA. I miss it all the time. I especially miss the people there who fill my life with joy and purpose.

But I was stagnating in Long Beach. I was poor and I was lost. I knew that I couldn’t keep going the way that I was going. The way I was living was a dead end and I knew it. I dream big. But one of the downsides of dreaming big, especially when you have nothing much to speak of, occurs to you when you look in the mirror and realize; “I have accomplished nothing.”

I felt that way for much of my time post-graduation. I suppose I still feel it a bit even now. But I knew then that I needed to make a change somehow. I was never going to be satisfied with my life if I kept doing “just enough”.

I needed a few things to happen to pursue the arts as fully as my heart desires. I needed to pay some bills. Big ones. Bills that didn’t even have anything to do with my student loans. Those present a constant monthly challenge on their own. After those things were dealt with, I needed to begin the process of becoming more professional about my art. I had to get headshots. I needed some way to find and attend auditions. I needed to become totally self sufficient.

I needed to grow up.

Things started with a scare out here. I almost got kicked out of my apartment as soon as I moved in. But, thanks to help from some generous and anonymous people I got out of the situation alive. I can’t say that I’ve accomplished everything that I’ve sought after here on the East Coast. In fact, I still have a long way to go in many ways. (I still haven’t made a dime on my art.) I have gotten started though.

I’ve taken care of a lot of the bills that weighed me down. I have headshots. I’ve been auditiong for short films and theatre gigs. I’m in my second play in Boston. I’ve just completed a short film with a group for the 48 Hour Film Festival: Boston. I’m involved with a group doing a sketch comedy show on Cambridge Community Television. It isn’t much when compared to my long term goals, but it is something. It is an improvement over stagnancy. I can hang my hat on it and feel pretty damn good.

I’m growing up and on the days I’m not terrified by the speed of my life, I feel really good. I feel like anything is possible. I feel like dreaming big.

Something rests on the horizon for all of us. We can’t get there by ignoring the logical steps that we need to climb. We can’t be lazy even though along the way, it is a good idea to let some joy in too.

Maybe start writing a blog (again)! It sounds like a good plan to me. And plans have been a great idea for me thus far.

He asked me when he did it if I had seen it, and I said yes. I saw the card…what I didn’t see was the heartfelt, hysterical and lengthy reasoning that he wrote for making the card.

I read that for the first time today…and I just about laughed my way out of my chair. And then I felt like crying because I miss my roommate of two years so much. I miss California and all of my friends so much. You are all so wonderful and special and I will never in my life forget you or leave you behind. I’m just in a new direction right now, is all.

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