naming blogs is easy

Happy Friday.

This album, which came out in 1992 and which I bought because of a Billboard note that talked about them garnering major-label interest*, is maybe one of the best powerpop albums evarrrrr, and certainly one of the best album-closing song suites of all time. Plus, it’s an “album download,” so you are getting 16 songs for the price of 12.

* The other band name-dropped in said item: the Afghan Whigs. Who knew that one little trade paper squib could have such a lasting effect?

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Michael Ausiello has notes on the cast:

SOPHIE: A pre-teen girl who possesses enormous smarts and great imagination, but who is socially and physically clumsy. She discovers that the doll her dad brought home from Belgium is actually a living, breathing Smurf. And not just any Smurf — Clumsy Smurf! Sophie tries to get her mom and dad to embrace Clumsy as a member of the family, but ultimately realizes what he really wants is to reunite with his fellow Smurfs.

SAM: Sophie’s 15-year-old brother. He’s a good kid, but has a tendency to be difficult and withdrawn. He gets involved in helping Clumsy return home and, as a result, bonds with his sister.

I mean… I just…

Well, that answers that.

(via hotfoot)

Did you get along with most of the guys?

I got along with some of them. I liked Big Rig and 12 Pack. Fox, too. Cage was a good dude. He burned me, but I still like him. We were just both drunk, whatever. I hated everybody else. I hated Chi Chi to death. I wanted to stab him in the face.

Why?

He was such a fag. He was just so gay. I thought he was just putting on a front because he was on the show, like, “I’m a big teddy bear sweetheart stalker,” but then I hung out with him after the show and I realized that he’s always like that. We went to McDonalds and he’s like, “Can I pretty please get a double cheeseburger please?” And I was like, “Dude, you just said ‘please’ twice, and one of those times you said, ‘pretty please,’ to the people at McDonalds.”

So you don’t like him because he’s gay? Are you anti-gay?

No, not at all. I have a lot of gay friends. I have ADHD, so when I say “fag,” I don’t mean gay. I just say “fag” like people say “fag” like it’s another name. When I call one of my friends “fag,” I don’t call them that because they’re gay.

But “fag” is an epithet meaning “gay person,” and when you call someone that to insult them, you’re equating being gay with something negative.

Actually, it’s used in Britain as a cigarette. So when I call my friends that, I’m calling them a cigarette, if you want to put that in the interview.

I’ll put that in the interview, but I don’t believe you.

I just don’t want that gay people to think that I’m anti-gay, because I’m definitely not.

When you called London a “faggot,” it raised red flags for me.

My gay friends call each other “fag” all the time, so how come it’s OK for a gay person to call another gay person “fag,” but it’s not OK for other people to call their friends “fag?”

The reappropriation of hate speech is definitely a complicated issue, and I understand why it feels like a double standard…

It’s a double-edged sword. If people want to take me as anti-gay because I called London a “fag,” well, London’s not gay. Me calling him a “fag” is whatever. If he was gay, and I called him a “fag,” that would be very hateful.

“I have ADHD”??? WTF???

shorterexcerpts:

azspot:

FOR the female half of the population, it may bring a satisfied smile. Scientists have found that evolution is driving women to become ever more beautiful, while men remain as aesthetically unappealing as their caveman ancestors.

While the idea that men are “still ugly” caused much mirth in WCBS’ chatty newsroom this AM, I took these findings more as a sign that sexism was still alive and well, and that men still held most of the cards in the whole mating-game thing. (Also what exactly does “beautiful” mean here? Looking like Heidi Klum? Daisy De La Hoya? Someone in between?)

tomewing:

I don’t mind her concept - or rather her endlessly deferred tease as to what her concept actually might be. I admire the way she’s done what a lot of stars do, and framed herself so that any critical question you might think to ask about her rebounds on you a bit.

If Gaga has closed off the “this is the real me” option then that’s interesting (though not unprecedented). But I also think all the art stuff feels kind of defensive, a get-out-of-jail-free card her icons didn’t need. And defensive in exactly the same way as “real me” moves: it creates an artist-Gaga behind the persona-Gaga who performs the exact same function as the real-T-Pain behind the autotune T-Pain, even if she doesn’t ever come out.

Totally agree with this. I felt like this fact was at least part of the impetus behind Mike Barthel’s Child’s Treasury Of Quotes Where GaGa Talks About Going Pantsless (which I have to put back on the site, as it got lost in the server move along with a bunch of other posts from the spring) — it’s almost like she starts talking about Capital-A Art when she’s worried that she might have nothing else to say, when she wants to dumbfound her interrogators (i.e. journalists) into feeling bad about questioning her at all (i.e. having to do their jobs). (Note also that her Twitter has a lot less pretense.)

the nimbus of their fame, etc.