A Tale of a Vuvuzela

The favorite instrument of the World Cup (and least favorite instrument of viewers of the World Cup) lead me to take a little trip down memory lane recently. Though, since I moved home, a lot of things take me on a trip down memory lane.

My junior year of high school I hung out with my friend Lisa and a bunch of dudes. Some of them were on the football team and we did the whole Friday night game thing. My friend Bryan, one of the few not on the football team (turns out he's insanely good at volleyball), was all about school spirit that year. He painted his face (and then smeared it on me to try and give me a Hitler mustache), wore crazy costumes, and got plenty of noisemakers.

One of these noisemakers, and no doubt the most infamous, was a blue vuvuzela. Of course, we didn't know that is what it was called at the time. We always referred to it as Bryan's horn. Bryan would blow it while we drove down the streets, he'd blow it in his backyard, and he blew it at school.

Well, at one football game, Bryan had the audacity to bring his horn and blow it at all the wrong times. It was so obnoxious that I refused to stand directly next to him. I thought it was funny the first five times or so. Then it got tedious. Turns out I was not the only who thought that. Bryan's horn blowing became so obnoxious for both teams that he was asked to stop multiple times. When he didn't, a technical was called on our Holy Family Tigers because of the "rowdy" fans. The next day, the incident was written about in the high school sports section of the Denver Post. Cue Bryan and his vuvuzela's 15 minutes.

I don't know what happened to Bryan's vuvuzela and his stunt was the talk of HoFam for a few weeks. I don't think anyone was truly mad at him. In hindsight, the incident is absolutely hilarious to me, especially with all the vuvuzela dissing lately.

So if there is a sudden rise in popularity of vuvzelas at Holy Family football games this fall, it's probably because of the World Cup. But remember, Bryan blew it first.

5 Pet Peeves

We all have them, but I used to think I was an exception. I used to think I was so easy going and that little things would never start to bother me. Well, I must be getting old(er) or something because my list of pet peeves only seems to grow. Below are five little things that drive me crazy.

1. People who mispronounce 'Xavier'

Alright everyone, here's the little trick I tell people who pronounce my alma mater "ex-ay-vier." It's like the X in xylophone and Xena: Warrior Princess. "Zay-vier." Not difficult, right? Well, for some reason it still seems to be that way since NBA baseketball commissioners, ESPN broadcasters, and people I'm related to still can't say it correctly.

2. One word text messages.

I hate hate hate it when someone texts me and all it says is 'k' or 'o'. That means nothing to me. It's just letters of the alphabet! And you just wasted one of my valuable texts.

3. Group numbers on American Idol

No one looks or sounds good when they do these. The songs are cheesey, the choreography is cheesey, and it's literally painful for everyone involved. Yet they keep happening. MAKE IT STOP KEN WARWICK.

4. People who root for teams from countries that they were in for a brief period of time over the country of their residency and/or birthright during world-wide sporting events

I understand if you were born in another country and then immigrated here, or if you lived most of your life in a certain part of the world, but just because you were there for two weeks on a college study abroad trip gives you no reason to root for Germany, Ghana, or anyone else, over the U.S. in the World Cup. You don't do it because you love Germany either, you do it just so you can be counter-culture or won't be preceived as being too nationalistic. The worst offense though is when people root for other countries over the U.S. because they are tired of the U.S. being good at everything. It just makes you sound like snob.

Also, if you like that country more than the one you live in, then why are you even here? I don't mind if you leave, frees up the job market for people like me!

5. People who use the wrong you're/your or their/there/they're

This was my biggest pet peeve as a teacher, but I worked with them on it. Afterall, they're only about 11-13 years old and the English language is friggin hard. I understand. But when you're a high school or college educated person and you use the wrong your/you're it just makes you look ignorant.

The Best Kind of Redemption

Recently I finally sat myself down and watched 'The Shawshank Redemption.' It was about time. I had heard time and time again how much of an awesome movie it is and it's on all sorts of lists of best movies and the original novella, 'Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption' was written by Uncle Stevie. And we all know how I feel about Uncle Stevie.

It goes without saying that this is a very good movie and a great story. I really liked it and I was very impressed with Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. Fun fact: Red in the novella is a white Irishman but Freeman is just so impressive that they cast him anyways. And he is impressive. I mean, the man really should just narrate everything. Tim Robbins was also great. In fact, I would argue that he was better than Freeman. I was shocked when I read that he was not nominated for an Academy Award for this.

What's even more shocking to me is the fact that 'The Shawshank Redemption' was a box office bomb. It cost about $35 million dollars to make and only made about $20 million in theaters. Since then it's been well received on cable and is one of the most rented DVDs of all time. It has also made the AFI list of greatest movies ever and was nominated for 'Best Picture' at the Academy Awards (lost to Forrest Gump. Not bad). I use all of this, plus the fact that everyone and their mom at Xavier loved that movie and constantly quoted "get busy livin', or get busy dyin'"as basis for my surprise and general disappointment at the movie going public of America. Again.

I think the thing that hurt 'The Shawshank Redemption' was the fact that it came out in 1994 and not now. I think if it had come out in 2009 it would have been seriously loved by everyone. The theme of the movie is to have hope, which is something that resonates with the movie going public today. The public loves little underdog, inspirational stories like 'The Blind Side.' Back in the mid-90s we were knee deep in Nirvana-angst and 'Reality Bites''-irony. It also wasn't on the same scale of epicness as 'Forrest Gump' and it focuses on people who society tells us not to like (though Andy is innocent).

Since then, thanks to rappers, the 'Prison Break' TV show, and lots of books written about being behind bars, prison and felons and all the taboo things slide right off our backs. So, in retrospect, 'Shawkshank Redemption' is, I would argue, more beloved than other box office success like 'True Lies' and 'The Flinstones' , two of the entries on the list of 1994's Top 10 highest grossing films. To me, being loved and adored fifteen years later is really the best kind of redemption.

In Defense of Twitter

People give me shit about a lot of things in life. Mostly, I deserve it. I claim to be a hard-core music lover, yet I watch American Idol. I get a lot of shit about this and that's okay. I also get teased for my ridiculous celebrity crushes or my bizarre taste in everything made in England, especially melodramas about teens.

But recently I mentioned that I'm on Twitter and how much I love it and the person I told this to blatantly laughed at me. I mean, my parents make fun of me, but they are plus 50 and I've had to explain Facebook to them multiple times. But the person who made fun of me is my age, addicted to the Internet, and loves to be a know it all. Sounds like the perfect person for Twitter, right?!

Well, apparently not so much. This person went out to describe Twitter as creepy and just another way for this already narcissistic generation to indulge themselves.

First of all, Twitter, like all social networking sites, is only creepy if you make it creepy. You are the person who choses what to put on there and you have the control over it. You also have the control to follow certain people and if you don't like them, simply unfollow. This argument can be applied to Facebook as well. I'm tired of people saying it's creepy.

Twitter is fantastic for lots of reasons, but the biggest reason why I love it is because I find out so much via Twitter. To paraphrase the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Twitter lets me get high on information. I am able to know about lots of things, current events, sports, pop-culture, everything all at once. I can go to one place and loads of things are there. I like to follow publishing companies or book reviewers to hear about the exciting things going on in the book world. I enjoy Seth Meyer's running commentary on the World Cup. I hear about cool shows and up and coming artists from the MTV News writers. I even know some of the funny musings of friends on family vacations.

Twitter also makes connections a little stronger. For example, I really miss Conan O'Brien. I became kinda attached to him while he was over at NBC and then he left. But, thanks to Twitter, I still have a little Coco in my life thanks to his once-a-day tweets.

I follow about 200 people on Twitter which sounds like a lot (click here for a list of people I like to follow on Twitter!), but some more active than others. I also use their awesome list option on a daily basis. It's good for a quick update. Now, if they could only get Denver as a trending location, I would be a very happy Tweeter.

This Just Makes Me Happy

It's times like this that I wish real life were more like a musical.

Also, this is not as cheesey as other 'musical' moments in movies, like that painful karaoke song in SATC2.

Is Anyone Original Anymore?

Lady Gaga is a lot of things to a lot of people. One person's icon is another person's delusional weirdo. I personally really like Lady Gaga. I think she's everything overblown pop stars should be; talented, original and super weird.

But lately I've been toying with the whole idea of her being original. The release of another epic music video,'Alejandro,' confirmed to me yesterday that Mama Monster must be getting tired because her ideas are becoming less and less original as time goes on.

If you judge Lady Gaga based on her music, she's 100% original. I really like everything about her music from it's catchy beats to its detailed production. But if we're to judge Lady Gaga on her music videos, which may be what she wants us to do since they're all pushing the 10 minute mark, I'm finding her less and less original and more like Madonna.

For me, the Madonna comparisons started with the 'Telephone' video. I like that it continued the story from her 'Paparazzi' video and I liked all the stuff with her being in jail. But once Beyonce (who I also really like) picked her up and they went on their wild road trip, people cried 'this is a copy cat of Tarantino!' True, the video does have a certain Tarantino flavor to it, but I seemed to be the only person who saw it more like a Madonna video than anything else. Don't believe me? Watch the video of Madonna's 'What It Feels Like For A Girl' below.

Hmm...scorned woman picks up a partner in crime (substitute Beyonce for an old lady) and they go on their own spree of misdeeds in a yellow car. I mean, sure there are differences, but this seems more like Lady Gaga is giving props to Madonna than she is to Quentin Tarantino.

Perhaps it seems like I'm calling her out for not making something 100% original. Truth be told, I think it's fine that she's putting subtle references in there. But now that 'Alejandro' has premiered, I'm wondering if there are any original ideas in music anymore.

The Alejandro video is racey, raunchy, and definitely makes a statement against the Catholic Church. Bor-ring. Hasn't this been done before? I feel like it has...by Madonna! And well I'm pretty sure the 'Like A Prayer' video had lots of blasphemous images in it, or at least one's that were controversial, like burning crosses! In the background of one of the shots in 'Alejandro' there is a screen projecting something that's been set ablaze and I wondered if it was a scene from 'Like A Prayer'. Also, the shots of Lady Gaga dancing by herself in a room that are black and white reminds me of 'Vogue!'

My point is this, the whole blasphemous religious imagery has been done. People who have come before Lady Gaga have made those statements and made them well. I think she's capable of more than this. If this is a song for the gays, which is what she told Larry King, then I think bolder statements could be made. Statements on religion and religious groups are important, but I think Lady Gaga is riding a tired bicycle.

Has anyone ever told Lady Gaga that sometimes less is more? When you put so much in people's faces, which she does in all of her music videos, it may benefit her to pull back and just give us something raw and emotional with little production and little imagery other than just her, in all her psychotic beauty, singing. If you were to ask me which of her music videos was my favorite, or in my humble opinion, her very best, I would say 'Bad Romance' because I felt like it was the most original, the most fun, open to a lot of interpretation, and really showcased her and everything she is about.

Scruffy Ron!

cue irrational excitement for November.

Why Didn't You Perform Like this on 'Idol'?!

This is really good. Too bad he didn't sing like this on the Finale!