I'm making my journal friends only, for feelings of personal security and comfort. If you want to read my ramblings and are currently blocked, comment here (and, preferably, tell me what turned you on to my journal) and I'll friend you.

I don't really feel like the personality and community I've built on LJ (and neglected forever) is really my style anymore. So I've created a new blog, which will hopefully fit who I am now a bit better, at http://novachild.blogspot.com . Feel free to check it out if you care.

Hearin': Pick-A-Little, Talk-A-Little/Goodnight Ladies - Leslie Hendrix, Tracy Nicole Chapman, Ann Brown, Mar

So everybody remembers this summer, right, when people were talking about all the shows they were going to check out this season, and how it was cool that there were all these quirky genre-esque shows starting this season involving things like super-computer secret agents, bounty hunters from hell, guys that can revive dead people (for a bit), a woman with technological superpowers, and so on? And how all of us who are always on the lookout for good writing and interesting plotting in our dramas were all really excited about these shows? That was fun, right?

Well, the dust has started to settle. I like the secret agent (though I don't watch him regularly), think the bounty hunter is boring, like the dead-reviver a lot (though I keep wishing his show were a bit more like that one with the girl that talked to tchotchkes, honestly), and nearly gagged watching the one episode of the techno-girl. Not a bad turnout, all around, but nothing that's really hitting me over the head with how much I'm madly in love with it.

No indeed. For the first time I can remember, my favorite show on television doesn't center around superpowers, the supernatural, or even super-intelligence (oh, Veronica). More, I suppose it centers around... super-wealth? And super-greatness.

Some background: Gossip Girl is based on a (pretty bad, but addictive) book series by Cecily Van Zeigweletichsomething. A book series that has no discernible qualities other than being about really rich, spoiled, kind of annoying teenagers on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Not recommended, though I love them the same way I love http://www.gofugyourself.com . Guiltily. When I heard that they were making a show, I thought is was a fun idea, and I looked forward to it guiltily. When I heard that Blake Lively (of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) was cast as Serena, I was amused, because I don't think her look fits the book's character. When I heard that Leighton Meester (Carrie Bishop on VM) was cast as Blair, I nearly threw a party, because I thought she was absolutely perfect. So I went in with some anticipation for an enjoyable guilty pleasure.

Guys, that started out true. The pilot, pure guilty. But right now, I don't think I'm overstating the case to say that it's one of the most compelling character dramas I've ever seen on TV. Leighton Meester is a work of art as Blair, beautiful and bitchy but also remarkably sympathetic. Blake Lively's Serena works very well because they re-wrote Serena to be real, not the Mary Sue she is in the books. Taylor Momsen, at 14 years old, is simultaneously disturbingly beautiful and completely believable as a freshmen willing to do almost anything to rise in the ranks of the rich and powerful. The males are good too, especially Penn Badgley's Dan (smart, poorer than richer, loves Serena) and Ed Westwick's Chuck (sleazy as all get-out, but remarkably fun to watch.) Even the adults don't suck!

It's getting compared a lot to The OC, and it is a Josh Schwartz show, with the awesome soundtrack that such implies. It has beautiful women, beautiful men, and lots of HoYay. Watch this show, guys! Seriously! It's just... good.

So, as some of you may know, I started and run a message forum for the Broadway show Spring Awakening. The name of this board is The Guilty Ones and it's hosted at http://www.theguiltyones.org.

Now, the producers of the show have always been supportive of the community, and they've especially always loved the name. The writer of the show, Steven Sater, actually thanked The Guilty Ones by name in one of his Tony Award speeches.

Lately, there's been some internal scrabbling at The Guilty Ones, and I've gathered some subtle hints that the producers were getting less and less happy that this totally unofficial board, outside of their control, was the de facto home for the Spring Awakening fan community. So it's to no surprise that they finally opened up an official message board of their own. I've always thought this would happen as the show got more popular, and I support it.

What I don't support, however, is their blatant appropriation of our community's name and format.

( Evidence behind the cut.Collapse )

From the pictures, it's pretty obvious that they chose to modify the exact same forum software (SMF) that we use, despite the existence of dozens of equivalent packages, and then basically denied our existence as a separate community by trying to take our name and apply it to this new place.

I'm not pleased. That name stands for a community, a particular group and place in the internet world. Us. Not this new and alien zone. WE are The Guilty Ones - those people are not.

So I guess my question is - should I try to protest? We don't own the phrase - in fact, it's the name of one of the songs from the show - but I feel like we should own the title. I don't like the idea of our identity being taken away.

Feelin': annoyed

I should be preparing for my class that starts in 56 minutes. But I'm not. Instead, I'm contemplating my nature.

I don't think I'm ever going to be a very good teacher. Not because I'm unable - I know that I could become excellent, and I could even give you a list of 10 things I could start doing immediately that would help me improve. I'm smart enough for it.

No, I'm never going to be very good at this job because I'm lazy. I just don't feel like working hard, and I would need to to become a good teacher. I'm just not interested enough in the teaching to obsess about it the way I can about whatever my obsession-of-the-week is.

I haven't decided what to do about this. Do I keep teaching, lazy-style, and never get as good as I could get because I just don't care enough? Do I cut my losses and go to a boring job that forces me to work by virtue of having me sit in a room surrounded by other busily working people? Do I find a way to make the one thing I am not lazy about - studying and learning whatever has caught my fancy this week - into money? Do I marry a neurologist, lawyer, or independently wealthy trust-fund baby so I don't have to worry about money?

I don't know.

Hearin': Nothing Better - The Postal Service

I'm in a weird situation where I actually find myself with a big crush on somebody I don't think I have any feasible way of getting a date with. See, I'm pretty big in this fandom, for the musical Spring Awakening.
Problem is, I find myself really interested in one of the actresses in the show (not a major character, just one of the ensemble members). I mean, she's exactly my type physically and personality wise, at least as far as I can tell from our brief meetings outside the stage door, her Myspace profile (which is heavy on the whimsical humor, my favorite), and the few Myspace messages we've exchanged (thoughtful, good grammar, funny). She's exactly the type of person I would normally ask out on a date. This being theater, not TV or film, it's not even some weird, impossible dream - 8 months ago she was a just-graduated college student trying to make it in amateur theater, just like dozens of other girls I've had the opportunity to date. It's not a celebrity crush, like the ones I have on Sutton Foster (also a Broadway actress, but a much bigger one) or Anne Hathaway - it's a real, honest-to-goodness, normal old crush, just like I might have on a coworker or fellow student I just don't know all that well yet.

I've been thinking about it, though, and I can't come up with any possible way to make anything of it. Any moves on my part are guaranteed to come across as creepy, since I've put myself firmly in that space of "Big Spring Awakening Fans," what with the fan community I created and run and seeing the show six times so far and all that. Even though I'm really a totally sensible guy who appreciates the show, not a scary stalker person, I very seriously doubt I can break through the wall that anybody who comes out of a stage door to hysterical teenagers 8 times a week has to place around "fans." And fans don't ask actresses to dinner without being crazy. Even though I rationally believe that it might be a good date for both of us, what with the similar interests and personalities and all. I'm at a loss. Seems a shame to give up a perfectly good crush on a viable candidate, but I'm not sure I have another choice.

Feelin': contemplative

The image below links to a music video from Spring Awakening, my new obsession of obsessions.

Click it. Watch it. Buy tickets. If that means you need to get on an airplane to New York, so be it. We'll hang.

Hearin': Don't Do Sadness/Spring Awakening

Calling fans of rock musicals

If you come to New York any time in the near future (as you should), you need to see Spring Awakening.

The story revolves around teens attempting to cope with blooming sexuality in a puritanical community that refuses to tell them what's happening to their bodies and what their feelings mean.

The story is good. But the music, oh man, the music.
( Read more...Collapse )

Feelin': excited

Here are the current top 50 books from www.whatshouldireadnext.com. Bold the books you have read. Italicise the books you might read. Cross out the books you probably won't read.
( Books back hereCollapse )