Fantastically Random

So I was stumbling yesterday, as usual, and I came across one of the best websites I've ever seen.  This post on the site showed fifteen unique ice trays, all of which I would like to own.  I don't know what's better than having ice dinosaur bones floating around in your glass of water.  And considering I love eating ice plain, it's even more fun.  These simple ice cubes make me optimistic that simply drinking a glass of water could be the most entertaining part of my day.

Too Much Medical Drama

So I've been a fan of Grey's Anatomy for quite a while now, and when Private Practice jumped on board as a spin-off series I was pretty excited.  Now I have two quality medical dramas I can watch.  But recently the producers of Grey's Anatomy created yet another medical drama, this time entitled Off the Map, which premiered a little less than two weeks ago on ABC.

Now, Off the Map doesn't even have the same basis that Private Practice originated with: a character leaving Grey's Anatomy and moving to a new place to work in a completely different medical environment.  The writer's of Grey's Anatomy originally led us to believe that our beloved pediatrician Arizona Robins played by Jessica Capshaw would be on the show taking place in South America, but they pulled her back full-swing into Grey's Anatomy before Off the Map had its pilot.

Off the Map is a decent medical show, full of the drama and strange cases I've come to expect from the writers and producers of Grey's Anatomy.  But I feel like there are simply too many of the same type of shows right now.  I can see the writer's intentions, Grey's Anatomy has a pretty strong fan base and Private Practice had quite a bit of success, but I don't know if I can watch another medical show and I don't think I'm alone.  Seeing as Grey's Anatomy is currently on its seventh season I don't anticipate it being around much longer, so a spin-off might have been better received at the close of the series rather than at a time when the drama's still in full swing.

But Off the Map makes me optimistic that when Grey's Anatomy does come to an end, at least all have some other medical dramas to fall back on.

Stumbled.

Favorite thing equals stumbleupon.com.  I'm always looking for new methods of procrastination, and this is the best ever.  Just now I stumbled across a real life picture of Buzz Lightyear, and the randomness continues forever thanks to this nearly infinite source of stupid I like to call the internet.  And this website is super smart.  It knows exactly what I like.  When you first sign up you enter some of your basic interests, like elephants and mind games.  But lately I've been convinced that this site can read my mind.  Recently my Mac crashed for unknown reasons and I lost all of my iTunes.  All 2305 songs I've spent a long time collecting a quite a bit of money on.  Surprisingly, Apple has no way of taking your music off of your iPod and putting it back on iTunes, a major flaw in the system.  So on my new crappy lil PC I've been seriously lacking music, which is another one of my main forms of procrastination.  On my StumbleUpon account I check iPod as one of my interests, and within about three minutes of my background music free browsing what comes up but a website suggesting ways to pull music from your iPod to PC.

Now, I've tried a lot of these methods and I'll be the first to admit they are a little sketchy.  Some of them required plugging your iPod in, hitting a complicated key sequence to keep your iPod from syncing and clearing completely of music, and revealing "hidden files" that would magically show up in your iTunes minutes later.  But this method didn't work for me.  Apparently my computer is so incredibly smart it doesn't even recognize my iPod for what it is, but instead insists it's actually a digital camera.  It's not.  So I couldn't cheat Apple out this time, but Steve Jobs wasn't about to win that easily.  The website had some other options, and it suggested this software called Cucusoft so that when you plug your iPod in all the songs show up in this other program and you can transfer them all in one simple motion.  This program does make it sound like my computer is going to explode when it's pulling music off, but it works.  The downside is it costs thirty dollars, a little pricey for my frugal budget, but I bought it anyway.  And I guess it's better to spend thirty dollars on a simple software than to re-buy 2305 songs, because that would cost quite a bit more money.  So thank you StumbleUpon for that little chunk of cash, you are the best,

But besides solving all my music issues it can do so much more!  Want to interpret your dreams?  Go for it.  And if by chance I find something less than interesting, although this rarely happens, I can move onto the next quality piece of procrastination with the simple click of the "Stumble" button.  Will my homework get done tonight?  That's questionable if I somehow get on StumbleUpon.  I can waste hours reading Dr. Suess quotes.  A few of my favorites are, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It's not."  "Today was good.  Today was fun.  Tomorrow is another one."  "And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed!  Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed."  And this ridiculously over used, "Don't cry because it's over.  Smile because it happened."  Dr. Suess will always amaze me in his ability to come up with inspiration quotes even when he is attempting to use less than 50 different words in his book.  And they rhyme.  What a genius.


Perhaps some of the greatest StumbleUpon treasures are the cute animal picture sites.  Who knew even a baby mouse is cute?  Well now I do and you can too.  And a turtle small enough to crawl on your finger does exist, so that's super exciting too.  I can even coordinate a horse quartet with the simple click of my mouse (even though these are cartoon horses and not real life baby horses it's still cool.)  So if you like animals of any type, check this thing out.


Finally, another equally entertaining feature of this website is it's links to complete time waster games.  I've spent longer than I need to admit on this game, and probably more time filling in colored squares than it took me to write this entire post.  But StumbleUpon has done me some good.  How would I have written this super-long blog post without spending time researching my website selections first.  So I've been entertained stumbling across the internet as I document my virtual journey.

I'm optimistic that websites like StumbleUpon are not only time wasters but can get people truly engaged in their interests, and yeah, maybe provide a much needed break from homework.  Now, I'm going back online, and maybe I'll get some homework done, but the way things are looking I'll be stumbling instead, and that's fine with me.

Optimistic Voices

I love The Wizard of Oz!  And I just remembered one of the less popular songs from the movie entitled "Optimistic Voices".  It's played after Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and Toto are out of the Poppies and reach the Emerald City.  Quality song.  And it makes me optimistic that even the writers of The Wizard of Oz understood that a little optimism goes a long way.  I can't embed it, but watch it here.

Tosh.0 gets 0 stars

Today, I think I may have seen one of the most unclassy things of my life, Tosh.0.  Hosted by Daniel Tosh, it would be an understatement to say I was disgusted.  Comedy Central usually has some pretty quality shows.  I really enjoy The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, but Tosh.0 really disappointed me. In the episode I saw, not only did they make fun of rape, but also mental retardation.  I can understand making light of current events as many comedians do, but I think this show took it a little to far.  There's quite a difference between poking fun of 50 Cent for giving financial advice on Twitter, and joking about the fools who actually listened, and going out on a street corner "asking" to get raped.  Also, this episode featured a segment called "Is He Retarded?" where the audience watched a online clip and shouted out their response.  They all declared "He's Retarded" to this clip, when in reality he is not. I personally don't think that rape or mental disabilities are an acceptable topic to make light of, and Tosh.0 simply doesn't know where to draw the line between what's funny and what's offensive.

However, I'm not the only one who feels this show is a waste of time.  A reporter for Miami's The Examiner, wrote this review which exposes the true horrid humor of the show and gives a basic break down of the typical bad YouTube jokes.  At least this review can make me optimistic that there are quite a few people out there who agree with me in that Tosh's jokes are horrible and the show as a whole is disgusting.

Despicable You

Lately, Steve Carell has been on my list of top favorite people ever, mostly because of his wonderful ability to make me feel extremely sorry for him, and even love him, even when he is acting like the most obnoxious person in the entire world.  I have been loading up on all the Steve Carell I can dream of.  Last week I watch Despicable Me for the first time where Carell plays a super-villain intent on stealing the moon.  After all his loud rants and annoying schemes, all of which are incredibly funny, he develops a heart.  He learns to love three of the cutest animated orphans I have ever seen in my life.  Steve Carell can nearly bring me to tears when they are taken away from him and he misses their dance recital.  What a tragic situation!  The encore performance was way better though.  Agnes also blew my mind with her hilarious cuteness and attraction to unicorns.  And his little creepy green alienish friends will make me laugh every time I see them, even if Carell's character Gru did treat them unfavorably at times.  It's probably against some labor code to send your employees to outer space with no equipment.  But no matter what, Steve Carell blows me away even when I can't see his incredible acting skills, just hear the hilarious words coming out of his mouth.

Just today I watched another Steve Carell masterpiece, Dinner for Schmucks.  Yet another obnoxious character, Barry doesn't really seem to understand his place in the world.  In fact, he doesn't really seem to understand much about the world at all.  He is a mouse taxidermist who makes artistic scenes out of dead mice.  They are really quite cute, but borderline on depressing when they begin to clearly represent his own failed marriage.  Throughout the movie, Barry accidentally sabotages Tim's relationship with his girlfriend Julie and his career.  It's a little sad though, because everything he does is with the best intentions.  Barry is invited to a dinner for losers where at the end of the meal the biggest loser is crowned champion.  Even after he learns the true purpose of the dinner, he still wants to win because at least he would be winning something.  My favorite part of the movie was watching Barry grow, not only as his friendship with Tim strengthened, but as he became more hopeful.  At the beginning of the movie he quotes John Lennon's Imagine "You may say that I'm a dreamer but I'm not", but at the end he finishes it off with "You may say that I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one".  He also brings out a underlying goodness that the other characters in the movie lacked.  He would jump in front of a car to save a mouse, even if it is already dead.  Barry's goodness and ability to be honest and loving easily made me love him.

Date Night, a movie from early 2010, featured Carell in a slightly different light.  This time he was the always hilarious husband who had fallen into a routine with his wife and only really wanted to change things up.  Somehow they get roped into a night filled with adventure after they steal a dinner reservation, as they travel New York City looking for a flash drive that the fictitious Tripplehorns apparently have something to do with.  After a long night filled with danger and scandal, the suburban couple outsmarts the criminal masterminds and gets to walk free.  Carell uses his wit and commitment to having a night to remember to keep the movie enchanting throughout.  Still slightly obnoxious, Carell is hilarious as always.

But Carell's biggest success, in my opinion, comes not through the multitude of movies he has starred in, but the American rendition of the originally British show, The Office.  Carell, back to his typical annoying role, plays Michael Scott, regional manager of the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin, a paper company.  Michael struggles with issues a paper company would face in the age of computers, but also with a few more interesting problems.  He goes through his fair share of relationship issues and fights with co-workers who don't really understand him.  Seven seasons in, the show will soon be coming to an end, bringing with it a multitude of comedians other than Carell who have established careers in comedy.  Rainn Wilson, who plays Dwight Shrute, has landed roles in movies such as Juno and Monsters vs. Aliens since The Office piloted in 2005.  John Krasinski, otherwise known as Jim Haplert has been in Shrek the Third and It's Complicated.  Although none of these quite match Steve Carell's fourteen hit movies and two appearances on Saturday Night Live since the pilot of The Office, it's no doubt that Carell helped to launch others careers through the success he brought to the hit comedy.  And although The Office is coming to an end relatively soon, something I'll surely be sad to see, it's certain that we won't be seeing the end of the comedic success Steve Carell is known to produce anytime soon.

I'm optimistic that the end of The Office will by no means be the end of Steve Carell.  He has the comedic genius to star in movies for as long as he wants to.  And if you don't agree that Steve Carell is hilarious, Despicable You.

The Old Man and the Seymour

"The Old Man and the Seymour" is perhaps one of the most creative short films I've ever seen.  Starring CollegeHumor's Amir Blumenfeld (previously mentioned in Amir's video letter to Santa) and Streeter Seidell, the film follows the recent events is Lewis Plunkett's life.  He is a 47-year-old with a growth hormone deficiency that often leads to him being mistaken for a high-schooler.  When his brother dies, he reluctantly gains custody of his high-school nephew, and is mistaken for the new kid at school.  The film is hilariously taglined, "Over 90 million Americans use products or procedures to fight the visible signs of aging.  Lewis Plunkett isn't one of them."  It received a multitude of awards including, Director's Choice at the Sacramento Film and Music Festival 2009, Audience Award at the Portable Film Festival 2009, and Best Cinematography at the NYU First Run Film Festival 2009.  It also played at a series of other accredited film festivals.

Only 31 minutes in length, "The Old Man and the Seymour" focuses mainly on the jokes and less on the story line, but it still is hilarious, and any fan of Amir would enjoy it.  Even the trailers are hilarious.  Then second trailer featuring "Requiem for a Dream" can be found here.  The entire short film can be watched online, through Vimeo here.

This short film makes me optimistic that comedy can come in any form, even if the concept seems depressing at first, jokes can precede story, and Amir can make me laugh in any situation.

Love Never Dies

Andrew Lloyd Webber is one of the most well known composers of stage musicals.  His claim to fame includes such titles as "Cats", "Jesus the Superstar", and my personal favorite, "Phantom of the Opera".  Recently he has written a new musical, a sequel (although Webber refers to it as a stand alone piece) to The Phantom of the Opera entitled "Love Never Dies".  It opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End.

Plans for this particualr musical began in 1990, although it didn't open until early 2010.  In "Love Never Dies", the Phantom is in New York ten years after the original "Phantom of the Opera" took place.  He created an attraction at Coney Island called Phantasma, but only really wants to hear Christine sing again.  Christine, Raoul and their son, Gustave, arrive at Coney Island, and shortly after the Phantom threaten Christine.  He tells her if she doesn't sing at Phantasma she will have to return home without her son.  With a dramatic twist at the end, Meg attempts to drown Gustave and holds a gun to the Phantom's head.  She accidentally shoots Christine, who then goes on to tell Gustave that the Phantom is his real father.  Christine then tells the Phantom that her love for him "will never die" and dies in his arms.  When Raoul returns, Christine is dead and his supposed son has left him to live with his real father.

As can be expected, the musical did not achieve good ratings.  In fact, on October 22 it was revealed the show would be closing and going through substancial rewrites.  Many of the musical numbers were to be changed.  Charles Hart, one of the lyricists, revealed the ending may even be completely rewritten.  The New York opening of "Love Never Dies" has been postponed and no clear date has been set for when the show will actually open.

This news may be positive to Phantom fans like myself, because the ending of "Love Never Dies" did sound quite disappointing.  I don't know if I would want to see a "sequel" with a sub-standard ending.  So for now I'll just stick to watching Gerard Butler play Phantom over and over again on Joel Schumacher's 2004 film adaptation of the originial musical.

But I'm optimistic that when Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical is done going through re-writes, it will be a worth sequel to the original "Phantom of the Opera".

Don't Stop the Pop

Every year since 2007 DJ Earworm creates a Mash-up of the top 25 songs of the year according to Billboard Magazine.  This year, Billboard online featured an article about DJ Earworm's annual mash-up.  Entitled, "Don't Stop the Pop" (one of the series of "The United State of Pop", it includes unmistakably recognizable hits from the past twelve months interwoven to complete one song.  The song is comprised of:

Ke$ha - Tik Tok

Lady Antebellum - Need You Now

Train - Hey, Soul Sister

Katy Perry Featuring Snoop Dogg - California Gurls

Usher Featuring will.i.am - OMG

B.O.B. Featuring Hayley Williams - Airplanes

Eminem Featuring Rihanna - Love the Way You Lie

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

Taio Cruz - Dynamite

Taio Cruz Featuring Ludacris - Break Your Heart

B.O.B. Featuring Bruno Mars - Nothin’ On You

Enrique Iglesias Featuring Pitbull - I Like It

Young Money Featuring Lloyd - Bedrock

Jason Derulo - In My Head

Rihanna - Rude Boy

Lady Gaga Featuring Beyonce - Telephone

Katy Perry - Teenage Dream

Bruno Mars - Just the Way You Are

Mike Posner - Cooler Than Me

The Black Eyed Peas - Imma Be

Jay-Z + Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind

Usher Featuring Pitbull - DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love

Travie McCoy Featuring Bruno Mars - Billionaire

Eminem - Not Afraid

Iyaz - Replay

When describing the songs from this years mash-up, DJ Earworm writes,

In 2010, pop has gone into serious all-out party mode. In 2009 the music was encouraging us to pick ourselves back up after being knocked down again, and to rock out to some great dance music while you’re at it. This year’s music tells us to keep going now that we’re up and having fun. In fact, the fun seems to be in such overdrive that it borders on recklessness. Usher urges us to ‘dance like it’s the last night of your life”, and Katy Perry wants us to “run away and don’t ever look back”. Even the songs that aren’t about parties have parties in their videos, like this year’s entries from Mike Posner and Lady Antebellum.

It’s a great thing about music that you can leave your worries and lose yourself in the moment. In our current world of dance pop culture fantasy, this takes place at a club, where you can drink, meet the most amazing person you’ve ever met, and where as Ke$ha says, “the party don’t stop”.

Last year, the hit was just as good, entitled "Blame it on the Pop", it interwove hits like Jamie Foxx's "Blame It" featuring T-Pain, Keri Hilson's "Knock You Down" with Kanye West and Ne-Yo, Jay Sean's "Down" featuring Lil Wayne, and The Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow".  To watch the video and hear the song, click here.

2008's installment of the "United State of Pop", entitled "Viva La Pop" which predominately featured Coldplay's hit, "Viva la Vida", can be viewed here.  And the original from 2007, simply titled "The United State of Pop", is located here.

DJ Earworm makes me optimistic that the talent to truly recreate something from what they already have exists.