So, if anyone is wondering, or even cares at this point, my valentine's day plans went really well, and everything panned out how I wanted it to. So for that, I'm very happy. I was sort of scared at first because my "Cupid" wasn't at school on time so as a last ditch effort, I kind of just handed it to someone else in her class, but thankfully he showed up and did everything right. So thank you Diego Hoyos, for making Valentine's Day great. I owe you one.
Since it already happened, I can reveal my little plan. Basically, what I did was make four folders, each one with a different gift for her every class period. I kind of stole the idea from my friend Tammy (it's what she did for her boyfriend), but honestly, it was so amazing that I had to take it. Anyway, I had Diego give her one folder every class all morning. My mom happened to tell a few of her friends and they were all like, "How romantic!" and all that stuff. I was honestly a little embarrassed, but hey, it's Valentine's Day.
I have a music review for you to gobble up today. It's by my favorite folk-punk band, Andrew Jackson Jihad. If you've read any of my recent posts (which I hope you have, or else a lot of stuff I say doesn't fully make sense), you'll know that they're this amazing band from right here in good ol' Phoenix. The name of the album is Candy Cigarettes, Capguns, Issue Problems and Such. It's amazing. That's all I'm going to say, because I'm just a little pageview whore, and what I really want you to do is go to www.blogforteens.com and read the whole review, because it's pretty interesting I have to admit. But hey, here's a little link to buy or download it off of Amazon, which I recommend you do because it's totally worth it.
I'm not really supposed to do this yet, because it's still a work in progress, but I have a friend named Marcella Vitulli. She writes a blog as well. She used to be a huge writer, but kind of stopped after a while. I somehow convinced her to get back into it, and now she's started a new blog. Marcella is one of the smartest people I know, and she's only 22 (I think). Anyway, point is, check out her blog. There's only one post, it's very short, and I think that she's going to soon do great things with it. www.cellasaurus.blogspot.com! And to Marcella, I know you're going to read this, but don't hate me! Even if I totally just put excess pressure on you to write stuff.
Another blog I wanted to talk about today was my aunt Diana Diaz's photography blog. I posted a link a while back, but she's added many more photos. She's an amazing photographer, and you really need to check out her blog again. http://dianadiazphoto.blogspot.com/!
While we're on the topic of art, there's a certain documentary I want to talk about today. It's called Exit Through The Gift Shop. I think a lot more people have heard of it due to it's recent and necessary Academy Award nomination for best documentary. Directed by renowned street artist Banksy, ETTGS chronicles the birth, and inevitable death, of street art, through the eyes of a French man named Thierry. Thierry is a very, interesting man to say the least. He films everything (everything). He decides to film his cousin, the popular street artist Space Invader. From there, he meets Shepard Fairey, and eventually Banksy. Together, they film most of Banksy's life as an artist, but as he notes in the introduction, Thierry seemed to be a much more interesting man, so the movie just ended up being about him. The reason I love ETTGS, is that, it's got the pacing of an action film, enough jokes to classify it as a comedy, but enough fascinating story to keep your eyes glued. ETTGS is nothing short of a masterpiece, and an ode and insult to artists everywhere. Please see this film, you won't regret it.
That's all I've got for now. Don't forget to follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/joey123mo, and send any comments, questions, concerns, just wanna say hey to rudeandraucous@hotmail.com! Do it!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
I hate seeing movies with other people in the theater..
It somehow seems that in two days, I've been to the movie theater two more times and seen two more movies. Barney's Version, and True Grit. They were both fantastic films, and as much as I'd like to recreate both of my reviews for both of them, you can just read them all at www.blogforteens.com! But, I do have a story about my experience seeing True Grit today.
I go to the movies, too much if possible. My favorite theater is Camelview 5 in Scottsdale because it plays all the independent films that I like. But also because the audiences are usually very considerate of everyone else in the theater, which I totally dig. With an audience of 200 in there, it feels like you're the only one. I love that! But when you start going up north on the I-17, this isn't the case. I went to the Norterra 14 theater off of Happy Valley. I walk in, and it's relatively empty, score for me. Then this lady and her husband decided to sit right next to me. Like, out of all the open seats, they have to sit next to me. Then this guy starts eating peanuts loudly next to me. To make matters worse, he burped in my face once every like, twenty minutes, and I got a nice whiff of cigarette smoke, peanuts, and anus all in one. I'm surprised I didn't throwup on this guy.
Then, behind me, there was these really old, fat people who wouldn't stop complaining. Anytime something loud in the movie happened, one of them said "That's too loud," and the other said, "It's unbearable!" I'm not one to lose my cool in a movie theater, but I was pretty damn close. Thankfully it wasn't to the point where it was so distracting that I couldn't pay attention to the movie, because I really loved it.
I'm watching the Grammy's right now, and it really is just a horrible list of nominations. I loved the performances, but the nominations are just absolutely horrible. And the winner's are even worse. How did Kanye West not even get a nomination at all?! What kind of world do we live in!? You can read all the nominees and winners here http://www.grammy.com/nominees. Send all comments to rudeandraucous@hotmail.com, or just post them here!
Filming for If Found: Do Not Return, starts Wednesday! I'm pretty excited to be playing the lead role of Kemper Sorerbac and I'm interested in how it's all going to pan out. Don't forget to please, please, please, check out www.notforpublicuse.tumblr.com and follow! We're thankful for all of the fans that we get, so please! Tell your friends, tell your teachers, tell your family (well, maybe not), tell a hobo! Tell a foreigner! Tell them to tell another foreigner! Just do it!
As most people know, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. It's surprisingly one of my favorite holidays of the year. Now, that's not really the case with my valentine. She's probably reading this right now, and just banging her head into a wall, begging for forgiveness. Sorry, Coco, it's the holiday season! I have to squeeze every little bit of life out of this as I can. Now, because she's reading this, I'm not going to say anything more about tomorrow. Oh, and if you play sick and don't come to school, I'll probably never talk to you again :) Just saying.
In spirit of the holiday, I've decided to post a video. Yes, a video, for the first time. It's my favorite love song of all time, and it's actually by Andrew Jackson Jihad. Coincidentally enough, it's called "I Love You". It's the most honest, realistic, and heartwarming love song ever written. Check it out!
That's all for now guys, I hope you have a great Valentine's Day! Be safe! And remember, it's all over once the socks come off! Thanks for reading guys!
I go to the movies, too much if possible. My favorite theater is Camelview 5 in Scottsdale because it plays all the independent films that I like. But also because the audiences are usually very considerate of everyone else in the theater, which I totally dig. With an audience of 200 in there, it feels like you're the only one. I love that! But when you start going up north on the I-17, this isn't the case. I went to the Norterra 14 theater off of Happy Valley. I walk in, and it's relatively empty, score for me. Then this lady and her husband decided to sit right next to me. Like, out of all the open seats, they have to sit next to me. Then this guy starts eating peanuts loudly next to me. To make matters worse, he burped in my face once every like, twenty minutes, and I got a nice whiff of cigarette smoke, peanuts, and anus all in one. I'm surprised I didn't throwup on this guy.
Then, behind me, there was these really old, fat people who wouldn't stop complaining. Anytime something loud in the movie happened, one of them said "That's too loud," and the other said, "It's unbearable!" I'm not one to lose my cool in a movie theater, but I was pretty damn close. Thankfully it wasn't to the point where it was so distracting that I couldn't pay attention to the movie, because I really loved it.
I'm watching the Grammy's right now, and it really is just a horrible list of nominations. I loved the performances, but the nominations are just absolutely horrible. And the winner's are even worse. How did Kanye West not even get a nomination at all?! What kind of world do we live in!? You can read all the nominees and winners here http://www.grammy.com/nominees. Send all comments to rudeandraucous@hotmail.com, or just post them here!
Filming for If Found: Do Not Return, starts Wednesday! I'm pretty excited to be playing the lead role of Kemper Sorerbac and I'm interested in how it's all going to pan out. Don't forget to please, please, please, check out www.notforpublicuse.tumblr.com and follow! We're thankful for all of the fans that we get, so please! Tell your friends, tell your teachers, tell your family (well, maybe not), tell a hobo! Tell a foreigner! Tell them to tell another foreigner! Just do it!
As most people know, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. It's surprisingly one of my favorite holidays of the year. Now, that's not really the case with my valentine. She's probably reading this right now, and just banging her head into a wall, begging for forgiveness. Sorry, Coco, it's the holiday season! I have to squeeze every little bit of life out of this as I can. Now, because she's reading this, I'm not going to say anything more about tomorrow. Oh, and if you play sick and don't come to school, I'll probably never talk to you again :) Just saying.
In spirit of the holiday, I've decided to post a video. Yes, a video, for the first time. It's my favorite love song of all time, and it's actually by Andrew Jackson Jihad. Coincidentally enough, it's called "I Love You". It's the most honest, realistic, and heartwarming love song ever written. Check it out!
That's all for now guys, I hope you have a great Valentine's Day! Be safe! And remember, it's all over once the socks come off! Thanks for reading guys!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Damn viruses..
I haven't posted in five days, and it's basically killing me, not to be melodramatic or anything. My reason behind it is, my computer got a virus from me downloading too many mixtapes on datpiff. At least, I think that's what happened. With computers now, it's almost impossible to tell. So now, I've been unflinchingly reduced to praying that I get a little time on the computer somewhere, whether it be on the library computers, or my mom's office.
Today, I've got two film reviews and nothing in particular planned, but we'll see where it goes from there. The first review is for a Greek film called Dogtooth. I actually saw Dogtooth when it was first released in 2010 (well 2009 for Greece but whatever). I really wasn't sure how I felt about it at the time, and I decided not to review it because I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. Almost a year passed by, and I decided to watch it again, mainly because it was the only interesting film on Netflix at the time. I watched it again from Midnight to 2 AM on a Saturday night, and paid more attention to the technical aspects of it, as well as the already intriguing story. On my second viewing, all the missing puzzle pieces that were there the first time all fell into place. Dogtooth is definitely not a film for everyone. In fact, it's not for most people. Imagine a Greek David Lynch film with a theme more reminiscent of a dystopian novel. The film switches from increasingly dry, to explicitly sexual, to insanely bizarre in a matter of minutes, but I think that's why I like it. None of the characters have names, and I think this is done to make the viewer refrain from making an emotional connection to any of the characters, whether they be good. That right there is the most interesting aspect of the film; it has no emotion. Until the third act, of course. That's all I'm going to say for now. Dogtooth is a fantastic Greek film that definitely earned its Oscar nomination.
The second review of the day is for a much less sophisticating and intellectually stimulating movie, not even film, movie, called The Roommate. Now, anyone who knows me knows that never in my right mind would I see The Roommate on my own. No, I had to miss True Grit because Piera doesn't know how to run to catch a lightrail. Because of this, we had to catch The Roommate as a last resort, because nothing else was starting at 5:15. We walk in, and there's literally no one else in the theater, a sure sign that this movie was going to suck...royally. After the previews for other films that are going to suck, The Roommate starts, with a horrible pop song that feels totally out of place. This trend continued for the rest of the movie. Everything felt random and out of place. The characters were drastically undeveloped. In fact, the only sympathy we feel is for the cat. You'll see why if you watch the movie. The only other character who we can possibly feel any sympathy for in my opinion is Cam Gigandent's character Stephen. The rest are absolutely throwaway, cliche, and underwritten characters that I didn't care whether or not if they died. Another thing that bothered me significantly was the PG-13 rating of this movie. It probably would've been better if it were Rated-R, for so many reasons. With that being said, I walked in the theater with my expectations being probably as low as they could possibly be, so part of me ended up slightly enjoying the stupidity of it. That's one thing about the horror genre that never gets old; even if the film is horrible, it's still enjoyable to a sense for the cheap thrills and bad script. I don't necessarily discourage you from seeing this, but I'm most definitely not encouraging you either.
Principal photography for Not For Public Use productions is Wednesday. Since Wednesday is a half day, we get like five hours of pretty much uninterrupted shooting, which will be fun. I really don't have much to say about that, but I'll see if I can post a few pictures on my facebook afterwards.
That's about it for now. Check out my twitter. www.twitter.com/joey123mo, not that I really post on it. Also, you can add me on Facebook (if I know you) at www.facebook.com/joey123mo. Thanks for reading!
Today, I've got two film reviews and nothing in particular planned, but we'll see where it goes from there. The first review is for a Greek film called Dogtooth. I actually saw Dogtooth when it was first released in 2010 (well 2009 for Greece but whatever). I really wasn't sure how I felt about it at the time, and I decided not to review it because I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. Almost a year passed by, and I decided to watch it again, mainly because it was the only interesting film on Netflix at the time. I watched it again from Midnight to 2 AM on a Saturday night, and paid more attention to the technical aspects of it, as well as the already intriguing story. On my second viewing, all the missing puzzle pieces that were there the first time all fell into place. Dogtooth is definitely not a film for everyone. In fact, it's not for most people. Imagine a Greek David Lynch film with a theme more reminiscent of a dystopian novel. The film switches from increasingly dry, to explicitly sexual, to insanely bizarre in a matter of minutes, but I think that's why I like it. None of the characters have names, and I think this is done to make the viewer refrain from making an emotional connection to any of the characters, whether they be good. That right there is the most interesting aspect of the film; it has no emotion. Until the third act, of course. That's all I'm going to say for now. Dogtooth is a fantastic Greek film that definitely earned its Oscar nomination.
The second review of the day is for a much less sophisticating and intellectually stimulating movie, not even film, movie, called The Roommate. Now, anyone who knows me knows that never in my right mind would I see The Roommate on my own. No, I had to miss True Grit because Piera doesn't know how to run to catch a lightrail. Because of this, we had to catch The Roommate as a last resort, because nothing else was starting at 5:15. We walk in, and there's literally no one else in the theater, a sure sign that this movie was going to suck...royally. After the previews for other films that are going to suck, The Roommate starts, with a horrible pop song that feels totally out of place. This trend continued for the rest of the movie. Everything felt random and out of place. The characters were drastically undeveloped. In fact, the only sympathy we feel is for the cat. You'll see why if you watch the movie. The only other character who we can possibly feel any sympathy for in my opinion is Cam Gigandent's character Stephen. The rest are absolutely throwaway, cliche, and underwritten characters that I didn't care whether or not if they died. Another thing that bothered me significantly was the PG-13 rating of this movie. It probably would've been better if it were Rated-R, for so many reasons. With that being said, I walked in the theater with my expectations being probably as low as they could possibly be, so part of me ended up slightly enjoying the stupidity of it. That's one thing about the horror genre that never gets old; even if the film is horrible, it's still enjoyable to a sense for the cheap thrills and bad script. I don't necessarily discourage you from seeing this, but I'm most definitely not encouraging you either.
Principal photography for Not For Public Use productions is Wednesday. Since Wednesday is a half day, we get like five hours of pretty much uninterrupted shooting, which will be fun. I really don't have much to say about that, but I'll see if I can post a few pictures on my facebook afterwards.
That's about it for now. Check out my twitter. www.twitter.com/joey123mo, not that I really post on it. Also, you can add me on Facebook (if I know you) at www.facebook.com/joey123mo. Thanks for reading!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Packers=$50 for Joey!
Today was one of the biggest days of the years. The superbowl. I went to Matt's house to watch it because my Mom and Tom didn't want to watch it, but I had to because I had $50 on it. Anyway, the Packers won, and I got the $50 so I'm pretty happy about that. I had a feeling they would win. I haven't watched a game all season, and yet I win a superbowl bet. How do I do it?
Matt is one of my best and oldest friends; I've known him for almost three years. I posted a facebook status saying how I wanted to go to someone's house for the game, and not 20 minutes later, I get a call from him saying, "Hey dude, wanna come over?!" It's like he's stalking me. Fast forward three hours, I get to his place and he's playing a Pink Floyd song in the garage. Please note that he had spent the past 3 hours sending me a text every five minutes asking me where I was.
We go up to his room, or his man-cave. He's got four guitars, and a drum set in his closet. On the TV is 1,000 Ways To Die, and he's got a huge window view of the rest of his block, where he probably flashes his testicles to the neighbors. I was looking around, trying to telepathically burn his DVD of Smokey and the Bandit, when all of a sudden, he starts playing Andrew Jackson Jihad off of his iPod! All I could think was, YES! The word has spread! I kind of realized that people who read my blog really take what I say about music and listen. Kind of makes me feel like a musical advocate for the rest of the world.
My condensed film review of the day is Biutiful. It stars Javier Bardem, one of the best actors of this generation. He's a medium who's got a terminal illness. With two months left to live, he contemplates how he is going to leave his children. His ex-wife is borderline psychotic, and he really has no friends. This is one of those films that really can't be described with a simple plot description. It's such a complex, symbolic, inter-connected, and interesting, that you have to see it to believe it. Biutiful, as beautiful as it is, is also one of the most disturbing movies I've ever seen. Not because it has gruesome violence or rape, it's because it's such a hauntingly realistic, and unsettling film, that it makes you realize, this is actualy happening all over the world. Overall, Biutiful is a must-see for those with a long attention span (it's 147 minutes long), and a lot of will power. I give this film an A-, it really deserved it. You can read my full review of it on http://www.blogforteens.com/!
So, an acting opportunity has "come to light" for me. It's being in If Found: Do Not Return. I've been repeatedly offered the lead role, the main killer if you will, and I've denied and denied it until now. I finally accepted, among other reasons, because I think it might be a fun experience for me. I'm not sure why exactly, but I think it will. I mean, how many people get to star in a movie where they're killers at 14? Not a lot. I still have to do a couple readings and make sure that I really want the part, but I think I'm going to do it.
Thanks for reading today's post guys! Send all questions, ideas, comments, concerns, etc. to rudeandraucous@hotmail.com! Also follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/joey123mo! Thanks! Oh, and Tumblr! www.tumblr.com/joey123mo!
Matt is one of my best and oldest friends; I've known him for almost three years. I posted a facebook status saying how I wanted to go to someone's house for the game, and not 20 minutes later, I get a call from him saying, "Hey dude, wanna come over?!" It's like he's stalking me. Fast forward three hours, I get to his place and he's playing a Pink Floyd song in the garage. Please note that he had spent the past 3 hours sending me a text every five minutes asking me where I was.
We go up to his room, or his man-cave. He's got four guitars, and a drum set in his closet. On the TV is 1,000 Ways To Die, and he's got a huge window view of the rest of his block, where he probably flashes his testicles to the neighbors. I was looking around, trying to telepathically burn his DVD of Smokey and the Bandit, when all of a sudden, he starts playing Andrew Jackson Jihad off of his iPod! All I could think was, YES! The word has spread! I kind of realized that people who read my blog really take what I say about music and listen. Kind of makes me feel like a musical advocate for the rest of the world.
My condensed film review of the day is Biutiful. It stars Javier Bardem, one of the best actors of this generation. He's a medium who's got a terminal illness. With two months left to live, he contemplates how he is going to leave his children. His ex-wife is borderline psychotic, and he really has no friends. This is one of those films that really can't be described with a simple plot description. It's such a complex, symbolic, inter-connected, and interesting, that you have to see it to believe it. Biutiful, as beautiful as it is, is also one of the most disturbing movies I've ever seen. Not because it has gruesome violence or rape, it's because it's such a hauntingly realistic, and unsettling film, that it makes you realize, this is actualy happening all over the world. Overall, Biutiful is a must-see for those with a long attention span (it's 147 minutes long), and a lot of will power. I give this film an A-, it really deserved it. You can read my full review of it on http://www.blogforteens.com/!
So, an acting opportunity has "come to light" for me. It's being in If Found: Do Not Return. I've been repeatedly offered the lead role, the main killer if you will, and I've denied and denied it until now. I finally accepted, among other reasons, because I think it might be a fun experience for me. I'm not sure why exactly, but I think it will. I mean, how many people get to star in a movie where they're killers at 14? Not a lot. I still have to do a couple readings and make sure that I really want the part, but I think I'm going to do it.
Thanks for reading today's post guys! Send all questions, ideas, comments, concerns, etc. to rudeandraucous@hotmail.com! Also follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/joey123mo! Thanks! Oh, and Tumblr! www.tumblr.com/joey123mo!
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Andrew Jackson Jihad
I just realized now that I haven't done a post in four days, and I just wonder where all the time went. I guess I've just been so busy at school that I haven't really had the time to do anything else at this point. Yesterday, which was first Friday, was one of my only times to relax this week. On top of that, mono has been going around our school, and I've been feeling pretty crappy. But on the other hand, this week I did an interview, and I'm also setting a couple more of them up.
I want to start off today by talking about a band. They're an amazing local band called Andrew Jackson Jihad. They're a two man band made up of Sean Bonnette, who is the lead singer and guitarist, and Ben Gallaty, who plays the upright bass. It was actually Rachel who got me interested in them, so much so that I decided to Facebook Mr. Bonnette himself. To my surprise he replied almost instantly, and I sent him a message about an interview. He agreed, and I sent my questions in. Since there are a lot of them (18 to be exact), I don't expect him to reply for a couple of days, maybe even a week at this point. I'm just excited to have had the opportunity to interview this guy. His music is very unique, incorporating Anti-Folk and Punk. I can talk about it all I want, but if you want to listen to, I can post a couple of links as well as an Amazon thing. They have a few albums out, but my absolute favorite one is People Who Can Eat People Are The Luckiest People In The World, followed by, Can't Maintain. Trust me, they're worth the money.
Another thing I wanted to talk about today was this episode of True Life that I saw on MTV. Ironically enough, it was about stuttering. I had no idea that they had even produced an episode about stuttering, but my mom sent me the link after she had heard about it and watched it on the MTV website. Basically, the episode follows three people who have a stutter. Tim from West Virginia who can't afford to pay his rent because his stutter prevents him from getting a good job. Caryn, a 20 year old college student who has hidden her stutter from her family and friends for her whole life, but is tired of keeping it a secret, and finally, Jessica, a 20 year old beauty pageant connoisseur from Buffalo, NY. The episode was really intriguing and truthful about stuttering, and I felt like I could really relate to it, seeing what the three of them went through. So, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to post a link for it. It's 37 minutes long, so be sure to make some time for it. I'm also definitely not saying you have to watch it, but I suggest you do.
http://www.mtv.com/videos/true-life-i-stutter/1574617/playlist.jhtml
I want to end the night with my first Friday story. When our little group was walking around on the outskirts of the first Friday zone, we saw this meth house, or drop house. We must have gotten there at the exact right time, because we saw these two meth heads walk in with crutches and a paper bag. I was pretty freaked out by it, I must admit. On the side of the house, by the gate, was spray painted "Keep out keep your life!" The ironic thing is that my friend Nikki also saw something similar, and posted it on her site, http://www.notforpublicuse.tumblr.com/, so you can check that out too if you want. Fast forward to about 10:00 PM, and my mom and I had just dropped off Lizz at the lightrail station. My mom decided to have a Good Samaritan change of heart and wanted to take Lizz to where she was staying, Piera's house. Piera lives in Tempe. That's about a 20 minute drive from where we were. We proceeded to pick her up, while I jumped out of the car, and Lizz and I chased after her around the block, getting stares from everyone around us. When we finally were able to catch up with the car, we hopped in and started driving. The drive itself wasn't very exciting, but when we got to Piera's house, Piera ran out, and we helped Lizz bring her stuff in. To my surprise, Willow was also sleeping over, and she was knocked out on Piera's bed. Piera woke her up, she jumped, and looked around, almost like she was trying to remember where she was. She saw me, and her eyes got all wide. She said "Jjjooooooeeeyyyyy" and got up from the bed and gave me a hug. While Lizz was getting all her stuff out and getting ready with Piera, Willow just looked around the room not quite sure what to do with herself. She was sick with mono I think it was, so she had just taken a few painkillers. After about a minute, all she could say was, "Hey guys, look, Joey's here!"
I want to start off today by talking about a band. They're an amazing local band called Andrew Jackson Jihad. They're a two man band made up of Sean Bonnette, who is the lead singer and guitarist, and Ben Gallaty, who plays the upright bass. It was actually Rachel who got me interested in them, so much so that I decided to Facebook Mr. Bonnette himself. To my surprise he replied almost instantly, and I sent him a message about an interview. He agreed, and I sent my questions in. Since there are a lot of them (18 to be exact), I don't expect him to reply for a couple of days, maybe even a week at this point. I'm just excited to have had the opportunity to interview this guy. His music is very unique, incorporating Anti-Folk and Punk. I can talk about it all I want, but if you want to listen to, I can post a couple of links as well as an Amazon thing. They have a few albums out, but my absolute favorite one is People Who Can Eat People Are The Luckiest People In The World, followed by, Can't Maintain. Trust me, they're worth the money.
Another thing I wanted to talk about today was this episode of True Life that I saw on MTV. Ironically enough, it was about stuttering. I had no idea that they had even produced an episode about stuttering, but my mom sent me the link after she had heard about it and watched it on the MTV website. Basically, the episode follows three people who have a stutter. Tim from West Virginia who can't afford to pay his rent because his stutter prevents him from getting a good job. Caryn, a 20 year old college student who has hidden her stutter from her family and friends for her whole life, but is tired of keeping it a secret, and finally, Jessica, a 20 year old beauty pageant connoisseur from Buffalo, NY. The episode was really intriguing and truthful about stuttering, and I felt like I could really relate to it, seeing what the three of them went through. So, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to post a link for it. It's 37 minutes long, so be sure to make some time for it. I'm also definitely not saying you have to watch it, but I suggest you do.
http://www.mtv.com/videos/true-life-i-stutter/1574617/playlist.jhtml
I want to end the night with my first Friday story. When our little group was walking around on the outskirts of the first Friday zone, we saw this meth house, or drop house. We must have gotten there at the exact right time, because we saw these two meth heads walk in with crutches and a paper bag. I was pretty freaked out by it, I must admit. On the side of the house, by the gate, was spray painted "Keep out keep your life!" The ironic thing is that my friend Nikki also saw something similar, and posted it on her site, http://www.notforpublicuse.tumblr.com/, so you can check that out too if you want. Fast forward to about 10:00 PM, and my mom and I had just dropped off Lizz at the lightrail station. My mom decided to have a Good Samaritan change of heart and wanted to take Lizz to where she was staying, Piera's house. Piera lives in Tempe. That's about a 20 minute drive from where we were. We proceeded to pick her up, while I jumped out of the car, and Lizz and I chased after her around the block, getting stares from everyone around us. When we finally were able to catch up with the car, we hopped in and started driving. The drive itself wasn't very exciting, but when we got to Piera's house, Piera ran out, and we helped Lizz bring her stuff in. To my surprise, Willow was also sleeping over, and she was knocked out on Piera's bed. Piera woke her up, she jumped, and looked around, almost like she was trying to remember where she was. She saw me, and her eyes got all wide. She said "Jjjooooooeeeyyyyy" and got up from the bed and gave me a hug. While Lizz was getting all her stuff out and getting ready with Piera, Willow just looked around the room not quite sure what to do with herself. She was sick with mono I think it was, so she had just taken a few painkillers. After about a minute, all she could say was, "Hey guys, look, Joey's here!"
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
I felt like I was there for the longest time...
Today was the day that I had my voice concert, where I had to sing in a quartet with four other people (get it?) We sang "The Longest Time" by Billy Joel being backed up by about 60 singers behind us. It really wasn't outnumbered at all. We got up there, sang our song about two notches too flat, got the applause we really didn't earn that much, and went back and sat down. Now, contrary to popular belief, our choir singing wasn't the funny part, it was things that I thought about while the other choirs were up.
The first one that caught my eye as a little odd was the 7th hour Foundations 1. They sang "Lollipop" (You know, Lollipop, lollipop, oh lolli-lolli-lolli lollipop!). At first I thought, hey, this could be kind of cool. Then they started doing these dance moves that I thought were a little, well, provocative for a 7th and 8th grade choir. I felt like the entire point of that song was to sexually exploit twelve year olds, especially with the combination of the lyrics and dance moves. I'm by no means a conservative, but the rate at which teen girls are "maturing" is pretty astonishing. I mean, we've got pole dancing dolls now for little kids. Yes, pole dancing dolls. For kids ages 5 and up. I'm not even going to start on that one.
My next issue was with a song sung by 7th hour Women's Choir. It was a religious song, all about Jesus telling Moses to go to Egypt. I have no issues with the song, because, I admittedly thought that it was really catchy, and the three soloists who participated were fantastic. My problem with the song was, they were singing about fleeing to Egypt, when right now, there's a violent freedom fighting revolution happening in Egypt, and people are literally murdering one another to get out. Ironic? I think so.
My final problem with the concert, was that we had to clap like every two minutes. I honestly felt like I was at the State of The Union. All I wanted to do was nod off and have a nice nap before I went home. But no, we have to actually watch the show. And since every supervising teacher was surrounding us, like we were fresh jail-bait, texting or listening to music wasn't an option either.
When we finally got out, Melissa admitted that she and Jia started to doze off towards the end. I told them that they were lucky and that I sort of did too. I have to confess, I played rock, paper, scissors with Coleson for the last 20 minutes of the show.
I know that this blog isn't very long, I'm just feeling kind of sick, and to top it off, I missed Tosh.O today which makes me very mad. I'll be back with some new stuff for you guys soon. Don't forget to check out my writing on http://www.blogforteens.com/!
Thanks for reading!
The first one that caught my eye as a little odd was the 7th hour Foundations 1. They sang "Lollipop" (You know, Lollipop, lollipop, oh lolli-lolli-lolli lollipop!). At first I thought, hey, this could be kind of cool. Then they started doing these dance moves that I thought were a little, well, provocative for a 7th and 8th grade choir. I felt like the entire point of that song was to sexually exploit twelve year olds, especially with the combination of the lyrics and dance moves. I'm by no means a conservative, but the rate at which teen girls are "maturing" is pretty astonishing. I mean, we've got pole dancing dolls now for little kids. Yes, pole dancing dolls. For kids ages 5 and up. I'm not even going to start on that one.
My next issue was with a song sung by 7th hour Women's Choir. It was a religious song, all about Jesus telling Moses to go to Egypt. I have no issues with the song, because, I admittedly thought that it was really catchy, and the three soloists who participated were fantastic. My problem with the song was, they were singing about fleeing to Egypt, when right now, there's a violent freedom fighting revolution happening in Egypt, and people are literally murdering one another to get out. Ironic? I think so.
My final problem with the concert, was that we had to clap like every two minutes. I honestly felt like I was at the State of The Union. All I wanted to do was nod off and have a nice nap before I went home. But no, we have to actually watch the show. And since every supervising teacher was surrounding us, like we were fresh jail-bait, texting or listening to music wasn't an option either.
When we finally got out, Melissa admitted that she and Jia started to doze off towards the end. I told them that they were lucky and that I sort of did too. I have to confess, I played rock, paper, scissors with Coleson for the last 20 minutes of the show.
I know that this blog isn't very long, I'm just feeling kind of sick, and to top it off, I missed Tosh.O today which makes me very mad. I'll be back with some new stuff for you guys soon. Don't forget to check out my writing on http://www.blogforteens.com/!
Thanks for reading!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Christown is where it's at!
I was on Facebook, and I was scrolling through a page of things that I can "Like." Among the many options, I saw Amusement Parks. Now usually, I'm a Like whore, and I just Like things that would go under the category of "Slightly Enjoy", so I had no reason to not press Amusement Parks, right? Wrong. The more and more that I contemplated pressing that little Like button, the less and less I actually wanted to, because the less and less the idea of amusement parks actually appealed to me. Now, most of you are thinking, "wait, Joey, amusement parks are so much fun." But are they really? Think of it in a retrospective point of view. Unless you're there at 6 AM sharp, you usually end up spending almost an hour in line for some mediocre thrill that lasts no more than five minutes. Also, be sure to wear running shoes, because that's what you'll be doing 75% of the time, trying to squeeze in a few rides before the park closes. It's also what you'll be doing when you make the forgivable mistake of eating first, and then going on rides.
Another "perk" of amusement parks, no matter where you go, there are at least fifty children under the age of seven have a complete tantrum in the middle of the street. It's a safety hazard parents, get your brats out of the way. The last thing we need is a dead five year old from Milwaukee on our hands; that involves way too much paper work, folks. My final complaint of the institution known as a theme park, are the prices of food. What goes through the mind of executives during board meetings? "Yes, let's exploit the need of food and water, charge $7 for a bottle of water, $3.50 for a churro, $7.50 for a piece of pizza, and $3.00 for a cookie, take their money, and call it a day. Oh, and no free refills folks." I'm pretty sure that that's exactly what goes through their minds. Same goes for gifts. I refuse to pay $25.00 for a "Collectible Souvenir Cup" that will probably spend most of its life shoved in the back of a cup cabinet, collecting dust and looking pretty. So in the end, is it really worth pressing the Like button? After all that goes through your head? I think not.
Phoenix, especially near where I live, has an array of interesting people of all walks of life. Yesterday and today especially, I observed these people in their "natural habitat". I started off my day Saturday at Arizona Mills, a mall in Tempe that is definitely normal. I got a couple shirts and pants, messed around, and that was all fine. We ate at this "Japanese" restaurant, which served Chinese noodles, Chinese sauces, and had a Mexican and a Korean working behind the counter. I can't complain, at least I didn't have to pay for it. From there, we went to Christown mall on 19th avenue, AKA, the hood. Christown has always been one of my favorite people-watching spots in Phoenix, because what you see there, you see nowhere else. I feel like the rule for shopping there is, "The more morbidly obese you are, the tighter your clothes need to be." That may sound funny reading it, but please, believe me when I say, watching it wasn't. Another thing I couldn't help but look at was the Ghetto-Fab that was walking around there. The 3 inch fake nails, with the fake looking extensions in the hair. To top it off, sweatpants that accompanied the 4 inch also fake stiletto heels.
I can describe a lot more, but there was one incident in particular that was extremely funny to me. I was in Wal-Mart (of course), and there was this man with a cart full of completely unrelated items, with bulgy eyes, like he was looking for someone. In some of the new and improved Wal-Marts, there are screens that advertise some of the more relevant and prominent products. This Wal-Mart, instead of having usable bathrooms (trust me I found out the hard way), they installed these screens into almost every aisle. This guy, with his watchdog eyes, stopped at every single screen and stared at each one for almost a minute straight, surveying the product, asking himself "Do I really need this, or can it wait?" I looked on at this man with fascination, actually hoping that he would pick one of the things that he so intently studied. It was like watching this amazing action movies with great effects and plot twists, except it was a guy staring at an Old Spice commercial play four times before finally deciding that maybe he didn't need it.
Today, a similar incident occured, except that it was inside a Filiberto's on 30th street and Indian School. My dad was really hungry, and we were on our way to the movies. We both love the food at Filiberto's, so we decided to stop in quickly for some tacos. He got two chicken tacos, and I got a cheese quesadilla. We get our food, and sit down. We were two of three people in the place, the other being a fat, probably homeless, probably crack-addicted, black woman wearing no shoes. Her hair was "styled" so that there were these 3 inch torpedoes sticking out of her scalp everywhere, uneven. She had a buffet of food in front of her, just shoving it down her throat loudly, with no consideration for the other people in the restaurant. Those people being my dad and I. He ate his food while i cut up my grease quesadilla, sorry cheese, and dug in. I ate quickly, hoping to get us out of there as quickly as humanely possible.
From there, we went and saw The Dilemma, it being my second viewing. Not that I actually paid attention to it the first time, but actually "watching" it for real, I liked it. It's definitely not a comedy by normal definition, but it's pretty good, and has a great performance by Vince Vaughn. I loved it's honest take on relationships, and how truthful most of it was. I would recommend couples going to see this movie.
I'm going to end this post with a little shout out to my friend Chloe Grace Rutledge, AKA Pippa January, who wrote about me in her fashion blog this week. I really enjoyed the article, even if some of the information on me wasn't totally correct. I honestly don't care about that, I just felt honored to be selected for a fashion anything, seeing as I spend a lot of time on what I wear. You can check out the full article at, http://thelifeofpippa.blogspot.com/.
Thanks for reading guys, hope I gave you a good laugh.
Another "perk" of amusement parks, no matter where you go, there are at least fifty children under the age of seven have a complete tantrum in the middle of the street. It's a safety hazard parents, get your brats out of the way. The last thing we need is a dead five year old from Milwaukee on our hands; that involves way too much paper work, folks. My final complaint of the institution known as a theme park, are the prices of food. What goes through the mind of executives during board meetings? "Yes, let's exploit the need of food and water, charge $7 for a bottle of water, $3.50 for a churro, $7.50 for a piece of pizza, and $3.00 for a cookie, take their money, and call it a day. Oh, and no free refills folks." I'm pretty sure that that's exactly what goes through their minds. Same goes for gifts. I refuse to pay $25.00 for a "Collectible Souvenir Cup" that will probably spend most of its life shoved in the back of a cup cabinet, collecting dust and looking pretty. So in the end, is it really worth pressing the Like button? After all that goes through your head? I think not.
Phoenix, especially near where I live, has an array of interesting people of all walks of life. Yesterday and today especially, I observed these people in their "natural habitat". I started off my day Saturday at Arizona Mills, a mall in Tempe that is definitely normal. I got a couple shirts and pants, messed around, and that was all fine. We ate at this "Japanese" restaurant, which served Chinese noodles, Chinese sauces, and had a Mexican and a Korean working behind the counter. I can't complain, at least I didn't have to pay for it. From there, we went to Christown mall on 19th avenue, AKA, the hood. Christown has always been one of my favorite people-watching spots in Phoenix, because what you see there, you see nowhere else. I feel like the rule for shopping there is, "The more morbidly obese you are, the tighter your clothes need to be." That may sound funny reading it, but please, believe me when I say, watching it wasn't. Another thing I couldn't help but look at was the Ghetto-Fab that was walking around there. The 3 inch fake nails, with the fake looking extensions in the hair. To top it off, sweatpants that accompanied the 4 inch also fake stiletto heels.
I can describe a lot more, but there was one incident in particular that was extremely funny to me. I was in Wal-Mart (of course), and there was this man with a cart full of completely unrelated items, with bulgy eyes, like he was looking for someone. In some of the new and improved Wal-Marts, there are screens that advertise some of the more relevant and prominent products. This Wal-Mart, instead of having usable bathrooms (trust me I found out the hard way), they installed these screens into almost every aisle. This guy, with his watchdog eyes, stopped at every single screen and stared at each one for almost a minute straight, surveying the product, asking himself "Do I really need this, or can it wait?" I looked on at this man with fascination, actually hoping that he would pick one of the things that he so intently studied. It was like watching this amazing action movies with great effects and plot twists, except it was a guy staring at an Old Spice commercial play four times before finally deciding that maybe he didn't need it.
Today, a similar incident occured, except that it was inside a Filiberto's on 30th street and Indian School. My dad was really hungry, and we were on our way to the movies. We both love the food at Filiberto's, so we decided to stop in quickly for some tacos. He got two chicken tacos, and I got a cheese quesadilla. We get our food, and sit down. We were two of three people in the place, the other being a fat, probably homeless, probably crack-addicted, black woman wearing no shoes. Her hair was "styled" so that there were these 3 inch torpedoes sticking out of her scalp everywhere, uneven. She had a buffet of food in front of her, just shoving it down her throat loudly, with no consideration for the other people in the restaurant. Those people being my dad and I. He ate his food while i cut up my grease quesadilla, sorry cheese, and dug in. I ate quickly, hoping to get us out of there as quickly as humanely possible.
From there, we went and saw The Dilemma, it being my second viewing. Not that I actually paid attention to it the first time, but actually "watching" it for real, I liked it. It's definitely not a comedy by normal definition, but it's pretty good, and has a great performance by Vince Vaughn. I loved it's honest take on relationships, and how truthful most of it was. I would recommend couples going to see this movie.
I'm going to end this post with a little shout out to my friend Chloe Grace Rutledge, AKA Pippa January, who wrote about me in her fashion blog this week. I really enjoyed the article, even if some of the information on me wasn't totally correct. I honestly don't care about that, I just felt honored to be selected for a fashion anything, seeing as I spend a lot of time on what I wear. You can check out the full article at, http://thelifeofpippa.blogspot.com/.
Thanks for reading guys, hope I gave you a good laugh.
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