Lose Your Cred

Read-A-Thon: I Think We're Done Here

2011-04-10T02:25:00.003-05:00

I am bundling up my loaf of cat (seriously, all four paws tucked and sleeping on the living room floor) and my book and heading for the bed. I know there's only four hours left, but I'm not a person who likes to be awake for a lot of hours at a time, frankly.

Anyway, I did finish Holly Black's Red Glove, bringing me to a total of 749 pages for those two books combined. I have been reading Naomi Novik's Throne of Jade, but as I'd already started it, I have no idea how many pages of it I've read so far tonight, nor how many I'll read before I finally go to sleep.

I'd imagine I'll call it quits somewhere around 800 pages.

But the important thing is this: I have read, oh, about twice as many pages as Lanie. :D

Goodnight, and good luck to those who are finishing out the last four hours!

- Julieann

Read-a-thon: The End?

2011-04-10T02:09:00.001-05:00

Finished:
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory: 33 pages
Emma by Jane Austen: 245 pages

In Progress:
Allison Hewitt is Trapped: Madeleine Roux (starting at page 87): 87 today

Total pages read: 365

Status: Tired. Going to read in bed and will post the final count in the morning. Good luck to everyone who's still reading!

-lanie

Read-a-Thon: Ongoing

2011-04-10T01:57:00.001-05:00

I am actually in the middle of the second book, Throne of Jade, already.

Read-A-Thon Update

2011-04-10T00:15:00.002-05:00

Total number of pages read: 596
(424 pages to finish City of Fallen Angels and 172 pages so far of Red Glove.)

Currently not reading anything except the posts in my Google reader because I probably have OCD. I have had 32 oz of Wawa coffee, a large Coke from Burger King, and a dance party to My Chemical Romance with Lanie and the cat.

Send help, there's no sanity left here.

- Julieann

Read-a-thon: Emma Complete!

2011-04-09T23:58:00.000-05:00

Finished:
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory: 33 pages
Emma by Jane Austen: 245 pages

In Progress:
Allison Hewitt is Trapped: Madeleine Roux (starting at page 87): 43 today

Total pages read: 321

Status: Very glad I am no longer reading anything from my phone/kindle app on my computer. My eyes are very tired of all that. Also doubtful that I will begin book four or even finish book three but I'm pushing through!

Read-a-Thon: Book Two

2011-04-09T20:08:00.001-05:00

-Julieann

Read-A-Thon: Halfway-ish mark

2011-04-09T18:51:00.002-05:00

WHAT UP. We have just returned from a foray for food! We have Wawa! We have Burger King! We are having a break from reading!

1. What are you reading right now? I am still reading City of Fallen Angels, by Cassandra Clare

2. How many books have you read so far? This is the only book I've been reading today. To be fair, I started it from the very first page.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? Holly Black's Red Glove.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? My Saturdays are usually free anyway.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? The cat puked on the bathroom rug immediately following me awaking from a nap. I am not amused.

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? I didn't know there were mini-challenges! I like those.

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Nope!

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? I wish I were not so addicted to sleeping.

9. Are you getting tired yet? I have already had a nap. I was getting a headache.

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered? Despite what I said about not laying on the bed, I actually did about 350 pages of reading there earlier today. I guess the key is having a book where you're like, just one more chapter! Over and over and over again.

-Julieann

Read-A-Thon: Progress

2011-04-09T14:00:00.001-05:00

Page 197.
(Fun fact: my cat is named after Isabelle Lightwood, a character in this book.)
-Julieann

Read-a-thon

2011-04-09T11:59:00.000-05:00

PHILIPPA GREGORY. I HAVE CONQUERED YOU.

Okay, I only had 33 pages left to read of The White Queen, but still. It's done!

Finished:
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory: 33 pages

In Progress:
Emma by Jane Austen: I don't know but I will figure out how to track this
Allison Hewitt is Trapped: Madeleine Roux (starting at page 87): 0 today

Total pages read: 33

Status: DISTRACTED by this whole Emma page tracking thing. Blah.

-Lanie

Read-a-thon: Book One

2011-04-09T11:13:00.001-05:00

- Julieann

Read-a-Thon: I'M AWAKE

2011-04-09T10:27:00.003-05:00

Silly me, I didn't go to bed until 2 last night and am just now rolling out of bed. Oh well!

Now that I'm awake and have eaten a bite and am relatively lucid (maybe I should look into some Mountain Dew before I say I'm actually awake), here are my goals for today:

1. to read Cassandra Clare's City of Fallen Angels
2. after which I will read Holly Black's Red Glove
3. followed by finishing Naomi Novik's The Jade Throne, which I am currently in the middle of.

If I manage all of that,

4. I will start Naomi Novik's Black Powder War.

If I still need more once those are done,

5. I have Johann Wyss's The Swiss Family Robinson on my Kindle app on my phone, which I am halfway through and
6. I am re-reading Holly Black's Valiant, which I am also halfway through.
7. Or I can start Carrie Ryan's The Dead Tossed Waves.

A series of plans! I has them!

Now, for the little survey thingie from hour 1!

1)Where are you reading from today?
The hipster colony! I will find somewhere to read where I won't fall asleep. AKA not my bed! Maybe I will have a bath!

2)Three random facts about me…
1. I will be splitting my time read-a-thon-ing with a roleplay scene I am currently involved in. I can't leave four and potentially five other people hanging while I read a book! That's just uncouth!
2. My cat stared at me until I got out of bed this morning. It was super creepy and I hope this is not something she makes a habit of. Izzy! What do you want from me? You have kibbles!
3. I don't love Incubus. I love Taking Back Sunday. Lanie and I are going to have a fight! :D

3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
There are approximately 5 million books in my general to be read pile, because I mostly only read on the train now, but currently four complete books off the top of my head, and half of one I've been reading on my way to work.

4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
Two and a half, with an extension for a third complete book.

5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?
When we did this a while back, I learned DO NOT READ IN BED, YOU WILL END UP TAKING A NAP INSTEAD.

- Julieann

Dewey's Read-a-thon

2011-04-09T09:53:00.000-05:00

Read-a-thon is on, bitches.

So I'm kind of three hours late in getting a start but that's fine because Julieann is not even awake yet!

Goals: Finish The White Queen by Phillippa Gregory (only 33 pages left) and Emma by Jane Austen (reading on my kindle on my phone so I have no earthly idea how much I have left, other than "less than half"). I don't know which other books on the book pile I'll knock off today but let's say the goal is...at least two, bringing it to a total of four finished books today.

Shall I go back and do the mini challenge of hour one? Sure!

1)Where are you reading from today? The suburban DC hipster colony where I reside. More specifically, probably on the worn-out couch
2)Three random facts about me… My dog is going to interrupt my reading at least 47 times today. I am currently trying to figure out how to shower but not waste valuable reading time. I love Incubus. Love, love, love.
3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? My to-be-read pile in general is out of control, not counting library books. I would like to read 8 just to catch up to the 50 books per year goal, but that seems a little ridiculous.
4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)? At least four books.
5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time? I am not a veteran by any means. I could use advice, especially about that shower thing.

-Lanie

Crystal Renn - Hungry

2010-08-25T17:32:00.001-05:00

I loved Hungry, until I didn't. Co-written by Marjorie Ingall, a magazine contributor (at Self and the the late Sassy), the fact that some parts dragged on like the longest article ever...made sense. But let's start up with the good stuff.

As no stranger to the eating disorder memoir, I dove right in, excited for fresh details cataloging the experiences and situations that ultimately led Renn down the rabbit hole to disorder. She uses clear logic to explain how she ended up unhealthy and makes every effort to reiterate that her disordered actions were just that. The early part of the book, about her childhood and how nature and nurture both added up to ultimate destruction of her self-esteem and body as a result was told really well. You really get a sense that Renn was a girl you could have known growing up, by the way she tells her story. It's relatable and really interesting.

Where the book falters is the recovery portion. It seems as if one day, after enough frustration, she simply decided not to be sick anymore. Her weight fluctuated and she was unhappy for a while, she eventually found her "normal" weight and everything was fine. As she tells her story, after choosing plus size rather than "straight" modeling, she'll interject that she was still screwed up about weight and food, but I would've liked to hear more about that, what work she put into herself mentally and physically to get better. I want to know what battles she had to fight to get taken seriously in an industry prone to tokenism and flightiness, instead of switching between statistics about eating disorders and the awesome people she's been able to work with.

I get that Renn doesn't want to burn any bridges, should she continue to bust down the barriers to work in high fashion and work for those who had previously shunned her. I was disappointed that she wasn't able to get any more specific about her struggles, and the second half of her book was the poorer for it, but it wasn't a bad book by any means.

Renn and Ingall use a casual style, but sometimes the magazine style takes over a little too much. I could have done without the clothes-porn descriptions of Renn's wardrobe and the awesome things she's worn in photo-shoots. Ditto for the overt praise toward designers and photographers. If you're more into fashion than I am, maybe it'll be a plus, but I hardly expected to hear what any photographer is really like from a still-working model.

It's not as serious a memoir as others I've read, it's not the most dramatic book about a disorder that I've ever read either. It is, however, an interesting look at the messages that women are sent, explicitly and implicitly by the world of fashion and the attitudes of those around them, for better and for worse.

Sara Shepard - Pretty Little Liars

2010-08-22T13:44:00.006-05:00

Now I can see why this series got picked up for a television show after Gossip Girl was so successful.

Pretty Little Liars was the perfect vacation read; scandalous, mysterious and funny. It's basically Gossip Girl with slightly less abhorrent male characters.

Much of this book alludes to past events when five girls, Alison, Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna were best friends, in between 7th and 8th grade. After the bossy ringleader Alison disappears, the group fractures and their secrets stay kept. When Aria returns to town and the girls are entering their junior year of high school, strange texts and emails, all signed by "A," start to plague the girls.

I really enjoy that Pretty Little Liars has a bit of mystery to it and things take a darker turn than the Gossip Girl series did. If you liked those books, there's no reason why Pretty Little Liars won't go down just as easily. If you weren't into the Gossip Girl series, but you enjoy frothy scandals, give this series a try. It's definitely a quick and fun read.

Cherie Bennett - Life in the Fat Lane

2010-08-18T23:00:00.002-05:00

Lara Ardeche, a voice in my head said to me, you are not a quitter. You can change this. And you don't need anyone's help. All you have to do is stop eating. Totally. No matter how hungry you get, or how bad that is, it can't be as bad as this is.

Yes. That was what I would do. I'd just stop eating.

One of two things would happen.

I would get thin again. Or I would die.

Either way I would win. - Life in the Fat Lane description from back of book, 1998 edition.

I love a good eating disorder (ED from here on out) story. Let's get that fact out of the way first. I find the psychology of them endlessly fascinating and one day, I hope to work with and help those that suffer from EDs.

Perhaps my more-than-casual interest in EDs colored my perception of this novel too strongly. Maybe author, Cherie Bennett, did not intend to address EDs at all, though much of the story centers around typical disordered thoughts and some characters are governed by what is usually looked at as disordered behavior, though Bennett refrains from using any specific terms (purging, binging, etc.) to refer to Lara's behavior. This story is not strictly about an ED, but it is firmly entrenched in that world. What Bennett did intend to do is a mystery to me.

Beauty queen and conveniently-named (for a completely unimaginative fat joke in the novel's latter half), Lara Ardeche (pronounced Ard-ash, can you see it coming?!?), is the straight-A, perfectionist, popular girl with parents who have no problems obsessing about her weight and eating habits over the dinner table. That's about 3 precursors for an ED right there. I'm willing to give Bennett one point for correct information, but I'm about to take away a million points for negligence.

Chapter numbers are, instead of chronological, beginning from one, Lara's weight measurements as they change through the book. Convenient for the reader, sure, so you don't have to do math or flip back chapters to add up Lara's weight and the plot points are all centered around weight, so the subject matter changes with each weight change. On the other hand, how gross and patronizing, to completely reduce this character to her weight and size, offering minimal plot with plateaus.

Also, when Lara is deemed to be at her perfect weight in the beginning of the novel, it gives someone who might tend toward disorder a goal weight to attain. Numbers are known to be triggering for those who are suffering with an ED. Although anyone with an ED picking up a book with this title is probably looking for trouble, a good bit of fear-based "thinspiration" and Bennett provides plenty of it.

Lara is under an insane amount of pressure from almost every source. Her parents have a rocky, seemingly loveless marriage, her friends are superficial and make derogatory comments about Lara's less popular plus-sized best friend to her face, her boyfriend is deemed unsatisfactory though she does love him, she has beauty pageant demands and she has self-imposed high academic standards. When she gains a little bit of weight, the pressure mounts and her barely-existent self-confidence falters until everything threatens to give way. Then does, when she continues gaining weight. Her grades take a dive, her parents relationship fractures, her friends turn on her, she can't even diet "right" (she abstains from eating during the day and sneaks food at night), and continues to gain weight to the point of hospitalization.

Being the person I am, I analyzed the clues given: Lara diets and "cheats" when failing to succeed at adhering to impossible restrictions, she works out to extremes. This has ED written all over it. Even when her weight gain was minimal, her mother provided immediate scrutiny. God. Her mother. What a piece of work. She set a terrible example, smoking and restricting her own eating for fear of weight gain and in the interest of keeping her man. All this set up to tell a pretty good story of what can happen when a perfect storm of pressure breaks down the spirit and body of a seemingly perfect girl.

But no.

I was debating revealing the next detail, but the following fact can be found on the back of another 1998 edition, so it's technically not a spoiler: it turns out that Lara develops a FICTIONAL metabolic disorder that causes her to gain weight, regardless of calorie intake.

I read the acknowledgments, where Bennett thanked someone for medical references, so I assume the disorder is based on something real. That's fine. The fact is that the doctors tell her that she's retaining insane amounts of water, her body is highly efficient, the less you feed it, the more "efficient" her body could get, leading to more weight gain.

Seriously? I mean, wouldn't she at least have some kidney problems or something?

Whatever. She gets "fat" (I won't reveal her weight at either end of the scale but she and everyone else calls her this), word spreads in her hometown that it is out of her control and she gets some pity, even though her old superficial asshole friends turn against her.

I understand the appeal of using an outside force as the controlling factor - completely governing the weight she will be. Most bodies have a set-point at which they will return with normal eating habits, which is out of anyone's control.

Why, then, was that not enough to be a compelling story? Looking at how a "perfect" girl dealt with weight gain -- flying in the face of what everyone around her seemed to judge about her -- would have made for an empowering story, had Lara ever for one second stopped hating her new body.

No. Life in the Fat Lane supplied the perfect bogeyman, an unstoppable force onto which Lara could place the blame for her weight and could safely hate her body without hating herself...though she kind of did that too.

After Lara's family moves, she loses all her social capital as well as the pity she'd gained at her old school. Lara's new school was a horror show of fat-hating stigma (which, to be fair, a lot of high schools probably are for most people that fail to fall into a narrow ideal) and everyone else's disdain for her was only compounded by her own self-loathing.

Even as she allowed herself to start a new life in a new town, deigned to make friends with the other outcasts (she was horrified that they gravitated toward her, as if she was one of them) and found a way to enjoy a talent that didn't rely on her beauty -- she never seemed to stop hating herself. What she went through didn't make her change her opinion of anyone of size who were surely to blame for their own weight problems, except, OMG, some of them can apparently dress themselves and still have style! And sometimes they can find guys that like them, if they're blind or probably still want them to lose weight.

For fucking real?

The unnecessary disease, on top of the incessant weight bashing made for an unbelievable, yet still entirely depressing read. I cannot recommend this book for anyone and can only view it as a strong example of what not to do. Don't pull explanations out of thin air. Don't supply hate directed at a character (and a large segment of the population) that never gets resolved unless you want your characters irredeemable. And definitely, do not feed on the fears of those with actual diseases and/or endorse those behaviors, giving them perfect justification for disordered reasoning without attempting to frame any of that as such.

Sensationalistic, irresponsible bullshit.

John Nolan - "Height"

2010-07-30T09:29:00.003-05:00

Oh John Nolan. I want to like you so badly. I'm super glad that you're back in Taking Back Sunday, because that's badass, but wow. Honey. Um.

I've had Height in my car for a while now, and I've only listened to part of it. But since I was stuck in traffic for a solid hour yesterday, I decided "why the hell not give this a listen, since I'm just sitting here!" So I did.

It's... strange. Nolan doesn't seem to have the ability to keep his voice from going super gratingly nasal on occasion, which is a blower because otherwise he's got a pretty nice voice. But his solo album is like the bastard love child of Straylight Run's The Needles, The Space and Brand New's The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me. The bastard love child that nobody wants to claim.

The first track, "'Til It's Done To Death" is weirdly electronic, and sets the tone for the rest of the album. It's all pretty weird, and it's strange to say that his cover of Primitive Radio Gods's "Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand" is hands down the best track on the album.

Instead of getting this, you should pick up Live At Looney Tunes CDs, which is a live acoustic album (which you can get here at ThinkIndie for five bucks) to hear the good songs without the electronica weirdness, the cover, and a bunch of in-between song banter that involves the other dudes in Taking Back Sunday heckling him.

-julieann

Robin Stevenson - Inferno

2010-07-30T09:13:00.005-05:00

Dante thinks high school is an earthly version of hell. She hates her new home in the suburbs, her best friend has moved away, her homeroom teacher mocks her and her mother is making her attend a social skills group for teenage girls. When a stranger shows up at school and hands Dante a flyer that reads: Woof, woof. You are not a dog. Why are you going to obedience school?, Dante thinks she’s found a soul mate. Someone who understands. Someone else who wants to make real changes in the world. But there are all kinds of ways of bringing about change…and some are more dangerous than others. - Inferno jacket copy from Robin Stevenson's website.

So this book came up when I was on a search for LGBT YA literature on Amazon to round out an order so I could get free shipping (I'm thrifty and it's books). So I bought it and it arrived and I read it.

It's kind of like a sub-par lesbian version of Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being A Wallflower. Only instead of music, Dante is into running.

So Dante is this sixteen-year-old girl, and a huge part of the plot is that she's just changed her name from Emily to Dante, because she's super obsessed with Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy. I mean, so of course her parents let her change her name to something totally ridiculous that she's only gotten into the year before!

I'm sure you can see where I have a problem with this premise, yes?

Anyway, there's all this fuss about how her name was Emily last school year and now it's Dante and nobody wants to call her Dante and seriously, this book would have been SO much better if she'd been a transman. I am not even kidding you, because the whole book sort of feels like maybe Dante as a character wants to transition, but the author didn't go there with it because she was too chicken to follow through with what she started.

Seriously. But maybe that's just me.

So she meets this chick Parker, she falls omg head over heels in love with her. Because that's what you do in high school, gay or straight. But see there's no actual conflict in the book unless Dante falls for Parker, because everything Dante does after that point is to make Parker like her. Even though Parker is straight.

As a sidenote, I recently read Julie Anne Peters's Far From Xanadu which had basically the same premise. And the same fucking fruitless ending.

SPOILER: Dante doesn't get the girl. Because Parker is straight. Also she has battered spouse syndrome. /SPOILER

Anyway, so there's some pathetic high school prankage anarchy and blah blah wow, this book really did not go anywhere.

It's not badly written, to tell the truth. But I found myself rooting for Dante to realize she was just bisexual and hook up with Leo because unlike with Parker, they actually had chemistry/made sense. But oh no, they're both in love with Parker.

Yeah, uh. If you're really bored and borrowing it from a friend or the library, you might read this book. Don't spend your money on it, though, 'cause it's not worth it. Pick up Peters's Xanadu instead, because it's got a better plot.

- Julieann

When in Rome

2010-07-21T19:25:00.002-05:00

After an unnecessarily awkward beginning, When in Rome started sucking a lot less! I guess that's not exactly high praise, but when you have read reviews that set your expectations so low, they're in the basement, you often end up pleasantly surprised.

That's really what this blog is all about, I guess: enjoyment via managed expectations. That and embracing the pleasurable part of guilty pleasures.

Enough of that. I'm pretty sure no one even reads this blog but I probably don't need to incorporate our raison d'être into every post.

When in Rome is supposed to be about the dumped single girl, Beth, disrupting a magical, love-enchanted fountain and a bunch of guys fall in love with her as a result while she also finds herself falling for someone after being closed off and broken-hearted. What it was actually about was Kristen Bell being dressed up and adorable while she navigated being stalked and nearly groped by said entranced men. Creepy!

Danny Devito was the standout love-stalker because he was so unexpected and awesome, but he was also the creepiest, and not because of the age factor either. Anjelica Huston stuck out for being Anjelica Fucking Huston and she's awesome, obviously. What the hell was she even doing in a movie with Fergie's husband? Yes, Josh Duhamel was the love interest. Bell's real life beau, Dax Shepard, was a self-obsessed model, stunned with his ability to suddenly be in love with anyone (almost) as much as he loved himself. Jon Heder played the same character he always does (Efren Ramirez even had a small part, just in case you could ever forget his and Heder's association) and Will Arnett had a bad fake accent which...seems to be par for the course for him.

Every other character could have been played by a cardboard cutout for how much they were utilized, which was especially sad in the case of Alexis Dziena who can ditz and crazy around like no one's business. Dziena's role as Beth's younger sister Joan was justifiably not that prominent, but I was happily surprised by her presence.

Anyway, the love story was cute but not sickeningly so. The ending was completely predictable if you are at all familiar with how movies work, but the rest of the movie leading up to the inevitable ending was pleasantly diverting without being nearly so obvious.

I was watching this with friends, which automatically made this a better time, but I wouldn't have been mad if I spent the half an hour watching it by myself. I wouldn't seek it out to watch again, but it's good for a single-serving time killer.

The verdict: don't pay to see it, probably don't even bother to dvr it, but if you come across it and there's no better Jennifer Lopez or Kate Hudson romantic comedy on right then...go for it!

- Lanie

First Listen: Beyoncé "Why Don't You Love Me" + Video

2010-05-09T22:45:00.003-05:00

I'm not a huge Beyoncé fan, but I cannot talk shit about her videos. Whatever craziness they're about, she goes 110% into it and delivers. Her latest, Why Don't You Love Me? is no different.

It's weird to have a first listen also be the first time you see the video because I'm pretty sure the dedication to the theme actually made me like the somewhat lackluster song better. I wouldn't even take a free download of this song (okay, who am I kidding? I would, if itunes was giving it away) but I enjoyed the video so much, I am tempted to take a second listen. That's what every video wants to do, right?

I agree with Trent at Pink is the New Blog that the video and the song don't seem thematically linked in any way but, like Lady Gaga and Beyoncé's "Telephone," sometimes videos just spawn from some random idea and are definitely visually interesting...but not related to the song whatsoever. When the concept is fun and weird and interesting, you tend not to care so much.

- Lanie

David Levithan - Boy Meets Boy

2010-04-07T18:10:00.001-05:00

In the acknowledgments, Levithan said that this book began as a Valentine's day gift, a story for his friends. It read as a love letter to them, their inside jokes and their lives. Given that premise, I totally fell in love with this book and the fantasy town in which it takes place. In the real world, I could see where people would have problems with the easy lives and outlandish characters in the novel. Taken as a gift, I suspended any disbelief and just enjoyed the sweet story.

Valentine's day is hard for a lot of people and it's hard to shake if it gets you so down. It was so syrupy sweet and sentimental, but in spite of all that or maybe even because of it, I loved it. If someone told me about the book before I read it, revealed the utopian/gay-friendly fantasy world that housed the absolutely ridiculous characters, I think I would have rolled my eyes and hated it. Because it came with a sweet disclaimer, I was completely taken under the story's spell. Maybe it's because I know what it's like to write, knowing that someone else will see the words I've put down. A wink to real life, maybe a nickname or a joke that someone's made, it's fun for you and for them. It can be nice for an outsider to look in on that too, to escape to that world.

Boy Meets Boy is the story of Paul, his relationship with his best friend, a bitter ex and a blossoming new relationship. Not everything is sunshine and rainbows, (I promise, despite the utopia I described above) but no matter the stumbling blocks that the characters come across, you get the sense that everything is going to be just fine in the end.

Recommended for people who have had a hard day, who want to wrap up in a blanket, curl up and read a story from beginning to end.

First Listen: 30 Seconds to Mars - "Bad Romance" cover

2010-04-01T17:03:00.001-05:00

I was hoping that this would be hilarious. It wasn't, really. It was moody, scary, and it's safe to say that they put their usual 30STM spin on it. As a lover of profanity in my music, I love this cover, but I'm not sure it was good. - Lanie

I'm confused by the alt-country vibe Jared Leto is working on his vocals in this track. The vocalizations have this bizarre twang to them that I'm really not feeling. Every time I start getting into it, that twang throws me back out. The instrumentation, however, is fabulous. I'd love to get my hands on an instrumental track for this, because it was just that good. I'm used to Live Lounge stuff being acoustic (Panic! At The Disco's version of "Maneater," Fightstar's "Battlefield," Paramore's "Use Somebody"), so this is a nice change. The lyrical changes are interesting, to say the least, but I have to say that they lost points with me for removing the Hitchcock references. One thing about the song, other than the instrumentation that I wholeheartedly approved of was the near-scream going from the bridge into the last chorus - I just wish he'd carried it all the way through to the chorus instead of backing down. On the whole, not my favorite cover of "Bad Romance" (I really like A Smile From The Trenches's cover from the Classic Vs. Modern compilation), but it's not terrible. If it shuffled up I'd probably listen to it, but I'm not going to be putting it on repeat. Interesting, on the whole. - Julieann

First Listen: Christina Aguilera - "Not Myself Tonight"

2010-03-30T19:34:00.001-05:00

Apparently Christina Aguilera is supposed to be revealing a new sound on her upcoming album Bionic. With her new single, "Not Myself Tonight," that sound is apparently cacophonous electronic pop. Make no mistake, I have no problem with electronica or even most bad pop music. That what this blog's about, having questionable taste but enjoying it anyway.

That said, this track is not good.

It starts with a spoken intro and gives way to what seems to be the music behind Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack." And then the vocals. Oh the vocals. I literally could not understand the melody of the verses. Half-spoken, half-sung and at the end, scream-censored: I was very confused. I'd just like to say that I was reading the lyrics along with the song the whole time. It wasn't that I wasn't getting the words through all the quickly varying sounds, but as a whole, I'm not sure it made any sense.

Maybe I'm getting too deep with it, expecting to find meaning in a Christina Aguilera song. As a club track, it won't be terrible. When she's not singing, I actually don't hate it. But there are so many layers, bleep bloops and voices coming from every direction that even her own voice is lost in there. That's a problem. - Lanie

Look, I used to like Christina Aguilera a lot. That said, I haven't been into anything she's done since Stripped. Yeah. So I knew this wasn't going to be good for me. And then it started with spoken word and I cringed. Then I started singing Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack" along with it, which, okay, if that was what you were going for, Xtina, then good job? I know people are doing that lately. (See example: being able to sing Britney Spears's "Womanizer" to Cobra Starship's "Nice Guys Finish Last" or being able to sing Blondie's "Call Me" to Muse's "Uprising.") But being able to sing "SexyBack" along with it was genuinely the best part of the song for me, and ... I don't like Justin Timberlake. The verses were a disaster, the entire concept of having a "pre-chorus" longer than the actual verse is something that grates on my nerves, and the chorus was nearly non-existent. And for this to be a pop song, the lack of a chorus is kind of going to be a huge flaw - pop music should have a catchy hook, and this track doesn't.

And let's not even discuss the faux-orgasm scream censorship and the idiotic spoken word at the end. - Julieann

Whip It!

2010-03-29T22:41:00.000-05:00

This movie is too cute to live!

Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It! is the feel good comedy of the year! I mean, no, okay, but it really is her debut, and she's also playing a character named Smashley Simpson (Lanie laughed really loudly at this when it was said in the theatre - she hearts Ashlee Simpson-Wentz) who is permanently stoned. And ridiculous!

So it's about this girl Bliss (Ellen Page) whose mommy is forcing her to be a beauty queen when clearly she just wants to be a hot probably-lesbian alternative girl. I mean, I don't know. (Ellen Page! Seriously!) So she ends up going to roller derby and then she tries out for roller derby and the rest is history.

Also, fucking roller derby, man. It's great to watch. I love it. I'd do it but you have to have health insurance, and I don't, or I would've tried out to be a DC Rollergirl. Just sayin'.

Anyway, it's really cute and kind of heartfelt and I almost cried just a little bit because seriously she just wants her mommy to be proud of her! And he hooks up with a douchebag boy in a band who is a douchebag but she pays him back and she makes the woman who wants to kick her ass into her friend or something and SERIOUSLY. Seriously this shit is great.

I loved it. I'd go see it again. I'd buy it on DVD! Yeah.

- Julieann

An Evening with Andrew McMahon @ Sixth & I Synagogue, Washington, DC 10/18/09

2010-03-28T22:36:00.002-05:00

First, let me start by saying that seeing a concert at the (historic!) Sixth & I Synagogue in DC may sound like a really strange thing, but it was actually kind of incredible. Of course, sitting in a pew in a house of worship lends itself to a great many jokes about religion. (I was raised Baptist and am not Agnostic, for the record, and this was my first time being in a synagogue - or anything but a Christian facility, actually.)

The Sixth & I Synagogue is beautiful. It is absolutely, positively gorgeous, and the sound, sitting and watching Andrew McMahon play with just the piano and Bobby Raw accompanying him on acoustic guitar (and occasionally mandolin) was an experience unlike any other. It was pure, auditory perfection. In the balcony, Lanie and I couldn't see that well (in fact, it took me several minutes to realize Bobby Raw was onstage at all), but it didn't matter. The sound was so perfect that I didn't need to be able to see anything.

I love Andrew McMahon. This is a thing I am completely unashamed of. He is one of my heroes in life. If you are not familiar with him, he is the frontman of the piano rock bands Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin, and had a bone marrow transplant in 2005 while battling leukemia. The current tour is in support of the documentary he made while going through treatment, Dear Jack, which I'm sure we'll review as soon as it comes in. (I've got it on preorder for the release date of November 3.) His music has helped me get through difficult times in my life, and his personal battle has made me aspire to be a better person.

That said, I went into this show with the knowledge that I would probably cry, and that I had put on my regular mascara instead of the waterproof stuff. And yes, I teared up, right from the very beginning as McMahon opened the set with "Hammers and Strings (A Lullaby)" from Jack's Mannequin's 2008 release The Glass Passenger.

I don't remember the precise order, but the songs played are vaguely as follows.

from Jack's Mannequin:
Hammers & Strings (A Lullaby)
Spinning
Crashing
Swim (Music Box version)
The Resolution
Bloodshot
Holiday From Real
Rescued
Bruised
Dark Blue
La La Lie (West Coast Winter version)
There There, Katie
The Mixed Tape

from Something Corporate
Walking By
Punk Rock Princess
The Astronaut
As You Sleep
21 and Invincible

covers:
Friend of the Devil (Grateful Dead)
Moon River (Audrey Hepburn)
Dream (Everly Brothers)

Bobby Raw also played one song, which I don't remember the name of, other than McMahon sang harmony on it and it was very nice.

Yes, seeing him in a synagogue, watching him drink wine and tease Bobby Raw about drinking Mexican beer in a synagogue was strange, but the entire experience is one that I am extremely glad to have had. -Julieann

Zombieland

2010-03-25T21:26:00.001-05:00

(Another post from the archives of the past few months. We're working on new content to show up once we're done with these posts!)

Uhhh, holy shit.

That's kind of all I can say about this flick. Seriously. I didn't know a lot about it when I went in, other than some friends of mine saw and adored it on Friday night, and that it was supposed to be a zombie-fest in the vein of Shaun of the Dead.

It was hilarious. It made you like these characters and genuinely worry that they were going to get eaten by these zombies. It had Bill Murray.

Nothing about Zombieland really fell flat. It was funny from start to finish. It had great use of on-screen captions as it illustrated Columbus's (Jesse Eisenberg) rules for survival. Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) was a riot in his quest for a Twinkie. All the man wanted was a Twinkie.

And man, you don't think a 12-year-old girl can be a badass? I give you Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). She'd blow your brains out and not think twice about it. And Witchita (Emma Stone)? Distractingly gorgeous. No seriously. Should she be that pretty whilst killing zombies? She's gonna give Milla Jovovitch a run for her money, ladies and gents.

Haven't seen Zombieland? Do it. After work today, go to your nearest theatre and catch this flick. It will make your day so much brighter that you'll wonder how it didn't exist before now.

- Julieann

This movie was 81 minutes of pure glee. By the time we saw this movie, the Bill Murray secret was still under wraps but oh holy shit. If you were a baby of the 80's and you have any affinity for the man, the entire time he's in the movie, you will be bouncing in your seat with excitement. It is awesome.

Seriously. Weeks later and I cannot wait until this comes out on video.

- Lanie