A Few sites I love

Okay, so I'm kind of in a lull period in my life where I have nothing going. Depressing I know. Anyway, supposedly this leaves more time for the internet and my stack of books that are socially important but I have no interest in. Let's all pray that this time next month I have my head in Novak's Prince of Darkness or Atlas Shrugged not Second Life or Farmville or some such sad internet thing. Gulp. Anyway, there are a few blogs and tumblrs that make me happy that I would like to share with my audience of three.

Dead Presidents

Okay, I admit I am ridiculously interested in the Founding Fathers. It's almost enough to make me wish I'd majored in history instead of every other liberal arts outlet available. I totally dig this question and answer blog because it adds perspective to our Presidents. In case you're wondering, my fav is John Adams. If you ever get the chance, I highly suggest watching the John Adams HBO series or an obscure musical 1776. (See Clip Below) [Yes, that's Mr. Feeney]




Hipster Puppies

Maybe you have to live in a Hipster Mecca to truly appreciate this hipsterrific (yes, I just made that word up) to truly appreciate dogs dressed up as snarky hipsters, but I am desperately in love love love with Hipster Puppies. It's a mix of my two favorite things, dogs and making fun of hipsters.

My Mom, Style Icon

There's something about 60's chic and daughters being proud of their mothers that brings a tear to my eye. I love this site because it really shows the style of normal women back in their heyday.  

A few of the more popular sites I dig are Lemondrop, TheFrisky, and Shine. I'm also addicted to Mental Floss because I'm a trivia junky. Good stuff. 

Not all who wander are lost

         
"Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window."








            2 am to 4 am are always the best and worst times of the night. I remember this episode of How I Met Your Mother in which the stated that nothing good happens after 2 am. With all due respect to the geniuses of that show, I've often felt that the only time I ever think clearly is in the middle of the night. I've always thought that I had many vampiric qualities, like being a night person and sparkling in the sunshine. Perhaps that is why I think so clearly in the silence of the night.
        

I turned 25 two days ago.

        Let that reverberate in your mind, let it simmer, let it bounce around like a ping pong ball. Perhaps to some their 25th is not that big of a deal. To me, its been the deadline, the day of dread that has chilled me to the bone for years. On my 23rd birthday, I was miserable. I had a mental countdown to that day. I cried the morning of it. For my 24th, I was sick and not just from having my gallbladder taken out two weeks before. I had dreaded my 25th birthday for two years and I had every expectation of having a dramatic event that would put new meaning to the words "psychotic" and "diva."

         To understand the reasons for my feelings, I guess you have to have experienced Crisis Crystal. Existential, Quarter-life, you name it, I've had it. I've been asking myself the big questions for as long as I've had a rational mind that could think about more than the muppets. Where was I going? What was I going to be? Who was I going to be? These questions haunted me. They still haunt me. My lack of knowledge burned through me. With every year the pressure built. WHAT WAS I GOING TO DO WITH MY LIFE?

          And the answer was quite simply...I don't know. I'm not supposed to know.

          I've tried planning long term, I've tried planning short term. And neither of those plans reach fruition. Its taken me five years to realize that what I think my life will be is probably not going to be even close to reality. I look at my friends. I remember what they had planned in high school, what we planned in high school. And most of them, seven years later, are the exact opposite of what we planned. I'm the exact opposite of what I had predicted. I was supposed to stay in Texas. I was going to be a writer. Maybe I'll go back to Texas. And yes, I am a writer. But I've changed so much that when I look at pictures of myself from that time, there is not a shred of recognition.

           I realized on my 25th birthday that I wasn't going to explode with answers, I wasn't going to know the map to the voyage of my life. I look at the things around me and realize that for all the planning in the world, some day there will be a 30 second window that will change everything. I realize that I cannot rationally predict what will happen. I can just point myself in a direction and keep walking.
           And now? What will I do on the year of my 25th birthday?

           I'm going to change the things I don't like about myself and nurture my best qualities. I'm going to get a job and start saving for things that I know I will want, like a house and child. I'm going to learn how to do the things I've always wanted to do like play the guitar, knit, and learn how to talk like Katherine Hepburn. (don't be alarmed if you're talking to me and I start claiming something "sure is yaaaaughrrrr") I'm going to bump along, getting a job I hope I like. I'm going to make the decision of where I'm going to move to once I get my post college bearings. I'm going to try to stop worrying about the economy, the unemployment rate, and how dismal the job market looks. I'm going to stop worrying about housing markets.

           I'm going to figure out a direction, even a series of directions, and I'm going to walk down those roads and see what I come upon. I realize now, its the only single thing you can really do in a world that is so uncertain. Therein this concept lies a peace that has eluded me for my life. I've given myself a free pass to wander and wonder, to stop and enjoy this moment. To not pretend that I know all the answers. Something I've learned is that I'm pretty perceptive when it comes to my friends, to strangers, but I don't know anything about myself. And if I know nothing about a car, should I really be driving it?

           It's complicated and it's probably foolish but I've gone from killing myself about a future I can't control to realizing that the only constant in life is change. Right now, the solace I seek is found in the consistency of change and that my life will soon be different.

            

Obscure Tuesday!!!!

"But all you have to do is knock on any door and say, "If you let me in, I'll live the way you want me to live, and I'll think the way you want me to think," and all the blinds'll go up and all the windows will open, and you'll never be lonely, ever again. If that's the case, I'll change the plea - that is, if you know the law's right and you're wrong."-Spencer Tracy 


Well, I'm not really in a chatty mood tonight because I'm not feeling too well. Consequently, I'm going to get to business...


Movie of the Week


Inherit the wind...


Probably one of my all time fav films. Really fantastic actors such as Gene Kelley, the 1st Darren from Bewitched, and my all time fav actor Spencer Tracy...
Inherit the Wind is a story about a teacher B.T. Cates who is arrested for teaching Darwin's theories. Famous lawyer Henry Drummond defends him; fundamentalist politician Matthew Brady prosecutes. It's a very thinly disguised rendition of the 1925 "Scopes monkey trial" with debates between Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan taken largely from the transcripts. 


Now some will say that this movie is against religion but I absolutely love the dialogue. Personally, I've never understood how anyone could really say they believe something when they have no idea what the other side is. 











For the poem of the week, may I suggest some Walt Whitman classics and some of my personal favorites. Read them for no other reason than the fact that they are the poems in the Levi commercials. 


Lastly, I'm introducing a woman you should know feature. These are women that I think history has mostly forgotten but were pretty awesome. They went against the times and were originals. I can't imagine anything better. This week's is my favorite conservative woman, Alice Roosevelt. 

During the time of her Father Teddy Roosevelt's Presidency, she smoked cigarettes in public, rode in cars with men, stayed out late partying, kept a pet snake named Emily Spinach ) in the White House, and was seen placing bets with a bookie. Her father once said, "I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot do both." She was an admitted hedonist and warmonger who I just get a kick out of. Click on her name to read the full wiki bio.

Obscure Wednesday!!!

"One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know."~Groucho Marx

As a cultural omnivore, I enjoy varieties of pop culture elements that seem to cross ethnic, educational and economic boundaries. More, I constantly reference these elements and sadly, YOU PEOPLE NEVER GET MY POP CULTURAL REFERENCES!!! I make a movie reference and you people never get it. You can forget musical and literature references. I'M WASTED ON YOU PEOPLE!!! So, as resident pop culture expert, I'm going to try to educate the few people that read this blog...So here's some rather obscure pop culture phenoms that you people really should know...


Theatre

Avenue Q

I saw this play about five years ago and it still resounds with me today. It's utterly brilliant, highly inappropriate, and still completely relevant. After all, the first line in the play is, "What do you do with a BA in English?" It deals with the disillusionment of our generation and also the current elements of our culture. The general premise is that the puppets, (yes, its a satire of Sesame Street) all live in the same low rent apartment building on Avenue Q in NYC and two of the characters have a romance. From this came the immortal song, "There's a fine fine line."


Here's the lyrics;
There's a fine, fine line between a lover and a friend;
There's a fine, fine line between reality and pretend;
And you never know 'til you reach the top if it was worth the uphill climb.

There's a fine, fine line between love
And a waste of time.

There's a fine, fine line between a fairy tale and a lie;
And there's a fine, fine line between "You're wonderful" and "Goodbye."
I guess if someone doesn't love you back it isn't such a crime,
But there's a fine, fine line between love
And a waste of your time.

And I don't have the time to waste on you anymore.
I don't think that you even know what you're looking for.
For my own sanity, I've got to close the door
And walk away...
Oh...

There's a fine, fine line between together and not
And there's a fine, fine line between what you wanted and what you got.
You gotta go after the things you want while you're still in your prime...

There's a fine, fine line between love
And a waste of time.


There's my personal fav-Ëverybody's a little bit Racist" (Explanation~For some reason, Gary Coleman lives in the apartment building. I still don't know why.)




Music

I was actually going to introduce some of you to Cross Canadian Ragweed. They're a fantastic alternative country music band that are major on the Texas Country scene. I highly recommend checking out this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkFtl50kqYE

Anyway, who I really want to introduce you guys to is Court Yard Hounds. You know them actually. It's basically the Dixie Chicks sans Natalie Maines. Now I know everybody conservative I know hates the Dixie Chicks. But I pretty much still love them. They always seem to produce music I just love. They even wrote my personal theme song. Anyway Court Yard Hounds are pretty awesome. Check their latest song,  Äin't No Son." Really excellent and it talks about something I think we all can be opposed to, no matter your stance on the issue.



Books


Anyway, as my last recommendation, I suggest The Intellectual Devotional;Modern Culture. It has a different essay about a pop cultural event or person that you are supposed to read every day. Really fantastic. I'm currently on the Intellectual Devotional: American History.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Intellectual-Devotional-Modern-Culture/David-S-Kidder/e/9781437654417/?itm=3&USRI=intellectual+devotional

Lastly, check out this list of the Top Movie Quotes in History.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI's_100_Years…100_Movie_Quotes


Update-Found this really great YouTube Video. Blog Post coming about it soon but for now, just enjoy...

Cleaning house...figuratively.

I've decided that I will spend the month of April getting my life together. I've spent the better part of the last year almost either taking care of someone or having two surgeries and a month long illness we fondly call "the black death." Ever since Christmas I've been trying to build up my immune system and to get my back strong enough for every day life. In other words, my priorities have been on my various health issues and not on the rest of my life.
The sad thing is that I've pretty much let everything slide.  My friendships have taken a beating. My beloved Team C is fragmented. I confess that it is mostly my fault. I didn't tend to my relationships with my best friends and I'm afraid that even though we still love each other, it's never going to be the same. Somehow, we all ended up in different life courses. I'm at a point of my life when I need to start making a career for myself.  (I'm actually starting to develop maternal instincts. I can hear my biological clock starting to tick.) I've let my relationships with my oldest friends slide. At Christmas, I only saw one old high school friend. I suppose that's because I just don't talk to many of them anymore.
I've let my class work, my house work, and even my art go. I haven't written anything in almost a year. I only do the minimum of classwork. And don't even get me started on the state of my room.
I've come to learn that everything we value, the external centers of ourselves, the things we love---they have to be tended. Most of the time we don't know we are tending to our families, our friends, our work, and our passions because that is pretty much the sum of our lives but let me assure you that when you stop tending, everything goes straight to hell.
So today, on April 2nd, 2010, I resolve to be better. I want to read books of knowledge, not the usual pulp mysteries I read. I want to organize my room, decorate it better, and for God's sake, find all my shoes that are scattered all over the house. I want to try to be a better friend. I want to start new pursuits like playing the guitar, knitting, and painting. I want to find some temporary work so that I can start pulling in a regular paycheck again. I want to finally unpack all the boxes I have left in the garage since we moved into the house almost two years ago. I want to figure out what I want to do with my life. I want to take an exercise class, even if it's just a self defense course. I want to do the millions of things and errands I've been putting off forever.
I want to figure out where I belong spiritually. For a long time I've been on the fence, shunning organized religion because I know I don't agree with the religion I was raised in and I generally don't do well with groups. But I realize I need to try to find a higher truth. I need to figure out where I belong, what I believe. I know I believe in God, I believe in Jesus. I just don't agree with Paul et al. I need to explore my spirituality. I realize reading Eat Pray Love and taking college classes on religion aren't really doing anything for me. I need to figure out what I believe.
I'm guessing this may take longer than a month...

Inner voice, where art thou?

"I must be travelling on, There's too many places I haven't seen." - FREEBIRD, lynyrd skynyrd



I'm reading Kelly Cutrone's new book. She's all about finding your inner voice and find the place where you belong. She talks about finding your tribe.
I'm only a third way through but I already know that she is telling me what I need to hear. In between the name dropping and shameless self-promotion, she talks about the things that lately I've been refusing to acknowledge to myself.
I need to break away. I need to find a way to move from Las Vegas and move to a city that calls to me. A city where I could see myself really thriving in as opposed to marking time here.
I just wish I knew where that was.
Lately, I've been thinking DC. I love DC. I probably could even deal with walking everywhere and taking the subway. I could write policy papers or write for a blog. Believe it or not, I could refine my writing to be acceptable in any format. I could probably have a life in DC if I could find a job.
The only thing is, I don't want to live my life in DC. I don't want to be there in 10 years or even five. I don't want to be that far from my family and I could never have the personal life I want working for a conservative think tank. Everyone says I should be a pundit but I'm starting to doubt the wisdom of that since my mouth is usually three steps ahead of my mind.
I could go back in the creative writing. But the truth is that I need more life experience before I become the kind of writer I want to be. Plus, I need a day job since I have become accustomed to a certain lifestyle.
The truth is that I used to know exactly where I was going to be. I used to be accused of living in the future. At times my mental image of my future was all that kept me holding on. But its killing me and probably depressing  me that I have no idea where I'm going to be post-summer.
I'm 24 years old and I need to get on with my life. I need to figure out what kind of job and what kind of future I want.
When I think about my future, I think about living in a old southern style tara house that I had gotten cheap and renovated. I think about living outside of austin or charleston or even williamsburg. I think about raising four daughters and schlepping them to school and soccer practice in between appointments. (Which if genetics is any indication, they'll really suck at the soccer) I imagine having dinner parties with all my old friends and our children playing together.
I used to think about being famous. Now, however, I realize I just wanted to the best in my field. Sure, I'd love to be on Fox News occasionally and go to White House State Dinners. But if I have to choose, I realize I just want a family and make enough money so that we never have to worry about finances or how we are going to pay the mortgage. I want to make enough money to take my mother to Europe. I want to be able to put some aside so my kids will have advantages that only money can buy.
But that tiny little voice that used to tell me what I wanted to do. That voice that made my decisions and lead me to be adventurous and take wild chances. That inner part of me who knew where I was going. It's been silent for a very long time. I have no idea what I want to do with my life and where I'm going to go.
And it's killing me more than anything I've ever had to face.

Ah, Lady Gaga! How scandalous you are!

Well, I have to confess. I am just fascinated with people's reactions to Lady Gaga and Beyonce's new video, "Telephone." My mother was horrified and disgusted. There seems to be a mix of revulsion and adoration of the video on my facebook. And my twitter feed is positively scandalized.
My fav reaction is that of my mother who informed me that I shouldn't post the video on my wall because people will think I'm a freak. Now granted, this is my mother who is a terrible prude when it comes to crudity on television but I took it as an example of far out our generation has become.
I think we can all agree that the video is shocking. What I find interesting is that it takes a lesbian scene and nudity in a women's prison and then eventual death of an entire restaurant to even come close to shocking the sensibilities of jaded generation Y. And the truth is, I've became especially numb because I live in Sin City. I see naked women on billboards on a daily basis. I am thoroughly apathetic to anything that would shock most people. I thought I might be an isolated incident since I was born a cynic but I think it is universal throughout the current 20 somethings.
To shock us you have to bring out the big guns and probably that is the reason for Lady Gaga's success. She manages to be so crazy, so bizarre that it breaks through and makes us comment on it. This is an amazing achievement in itself. The fact she is talented seems to take a backseat to her eccentricity.
She is pushing, pushing, PUSHING the envelope. I mean how much more can she do? She's two steps from porn right now. How much more crazy can she get if she's hit this point already?
I don't know but I'm sure its going to be interesting...