Glee: With the Tags Still On

I'm not sure how many of you read nymag.com's Daily Intel like I do, but they do these great Gossip Girl posts, in which they add points for realistic and awesome things and subtract them for unrealistic or boring things. I've decided to do a version for Glee.

In this episode, Sue Sylvester and Will go head-to-head in a battle for the glee club's soul.

POSITIVES

- Puck would definitely play the guitar. After all, any douchey high school boy can learn to play the guitar to impress girls. Plus 1.

-  The jocks always do bad in Spanish. There are exceptions, yes, but generally, Spanish is an appropriate class to fail. Plus 3.

- Mercedes: "Can we do something a little more black?

  Rachel: "It's Glee Club."

  Mercedes: "Don't make me take you to the carpet." Plus 2.

- Sue sows salt into the ground of the house she is selling because the new owners want her to pay the closing costs. Plus 2.

- The principal would go to a leadership seminar, and he would use the skills he learned at inappropriate times. Plus 1.

- Finn says "Awesome" when the ultrasound lady tells him that, at Quinn's age, nothing will go wrong. He doesn't understand. Plus 1.

- Okay, can we talk about this whole minority thing? Sue is kind of brilliant for thinking of such a thing, because minorities are always a touchy topic. No one wants to be a racist/homophobe/wheelchair-hater. Plus 3. And the fact that she sets up Mercedes as the new Queen B is great. Both for Mercedes, the girl in Rachel's spotlight, and for us, to get to her Mercedes ripping up a new song, a la "Bust Your Windows." Plus 2.

- Carol's sister thinks it was vaccinations that made her kid stupid. Plus 1.

- Mercedes wears a 'bling' necklance to the minority Glee Club meeting. It says her name. Win. Plus 1.

- Sue, like a typical white person, rolls out the fact she is 1/16 Native American, even using that more neutral term than "Indian," which you know she thinks. Plus 2. And then she thinks you can become a minority by moving to California. Plus 1.

- Sue: "I hate men with curly hair. I imagine birds laying sulfurous eggs in there and it is disgusting." Plus 1.

- How awesome is the music that appears whenever Sue or Will has a particularly deadly strike against the other? Plus 1.

- Sue calls Spanish a dying language, and says that the most useful skill for future lawyers and politicians to have it the ability to to a roundoff. Plus 3.

- The principal puts his video on YouTube, and it only gets two hits. It's so hard to be a YouTube celebrity. Plus 1.

- Quinn: "Give me my test back!"

   Britt: "I just don't understand anything." Plus 1.

- Sue got her Ph.D. online. Plus 1.

- Rachel has already worn the outfit she wears when she is about to sing "No Air" on stage with Finn. Yay for reality! Plus 2.





total positives: 30





NEGATIVES

- Will would have totally noticed Rachel, Finn, and Quinn talking during the Spanish test. Teachers aren't THAT obtuse.  Minus 3.

- That nerd kid with the Jew fro has a Gossip Girl style blog for the school. Now, that might be okay in a private, Upper East Side school, but it doesn't fly in public school. Some kids in my school tried that a few years ago and it got shut down, and they got in trouble. Minus 4.

- Rachel goes through the trouble of giving Jew Fro kid panties and then forgets to take the tags off of them? Doubtful. Minus 3.

- Only teachers in movies and tv shows grade with letters. Everyone else uses number. Minus 2.

- That slow motion thing when Sue and Will argue is lame. Minus 1.

- Okay, really, Will? Have you never seen any ultrasounds happen in movies or TV? The girl is never blocked, because nothing inappropriate is shown. Minus 2. And the ultrasound of Terri's news does not look like a baby. Minus 1.





total negatives: 13





end result: +17





So this week's episode was pretty good, with the exception of Will's idiocy about Terri's pregnancy and the gossip blog.

Annie-mal Attraction

It's Friday. No one wants to hear about the ridiculous story of the boy was hiding in the attic while a nation frantically watched the runaway hot air balloon he was supposed to be in. How did he even get in there? Aren't they usually supervised, and if not that, childproof? BUT I promised not to talk about it. Instead, let's get to know today's featured music artist: Annie.



She is Norwegian. Yes. Big deal? Maybe. After all, everyone knows that Sweden has some of (if not, THE) best pop music in the entire world. And Norway is right next door. Anyway, the moral of the story is that Annie (real name: Anne Lilia Berge Strand) makes some of the best electropop out there. She's been described as "the Kylie it's cool to like," referring to, of course, Kylie Minogue. But don't take the blogosphere's word for it. Listen for yourself:







Annie's new album, don't stop, will be released in the US on November 17th. I know I'll be waiting. How about you? Have your music tastes gone up in the class system yet?



Listen to Annie- Don't Stop @ hypem.com



image courtesy last.fm

Link of the Day: John Stewart

image from the NYTimes

Famous for his irreverent political humor, Daily Show host John Stewart did not pass up the opportunity to attack Fox News for its ignorance of the National Equality March on the National Mall last Sunday. The march, which included about 75,000 protesters, was the first such demonstration in many years. Attempting to turn public opinion against laws such as California's Proposition 8 and other discriminatory legislation, the weekend of civic action also included at black tie event at the Human Rights Organization. President Barack Obama appeared at the event and announced "unwavering" support of gay, lesbian and transgender rights while also promising to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.



Personally, my favorite quote is "gay people aren't vampires, they do show up on camera."

I'm incredibly affronted at the notion of inequality which continues to pervade America. It follows rational thinking that in a democracy all citizens are treated equally. The religious institution of marriage is not what is being contested here, rather the secular (and legal) partnership. Society created the very word "marriage" and the connotations associated with it. As we move into the 21st-century it should be humiliating to America, which claims to represent a land of prosperity and freedom, that a significant portion of the population is incapable of entering into a legal relationship with their significant others.



I felt the ending to the New York Times article on the subject was fitting:



"Dave Valk, 22, the student outreach coordinator for the march, said he believed that many people his age were embracing gay rights as the civil rights struggle of their time. 'There are a lot of people getting involved not just because it’s a gay rights movement but because it’s a generational movement,' he said. 'People feel like they’re part of a shift, that this is important.”





View the video:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Queer and Loathing in D.C.
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

"Iranians Demand Loan of Treasure"

I must admit, the very fact that the BBC could publish this headline makes me chuckle a bit. Upon scanning my RSS feed and seeing this one-line description, I immediately conjured images of Iranians en masse chanting for a magic lantern and a genie to solve their difficulties creating a viable long-range warhead. After reading the article it's clear that this is not the case, however.

It seems that, following centuries of alleged imperialism, the Iranian government is demanding the return of a Persian artifact, "The Cyrus Cylinder", a clay cylinder dating from Babylonia which discusses religious tolerance and other civic rights. Commissioned by King Cyrus, the cylinder is about 2600 years old and is believed to have been created in the 6th-century BCE.

While the British Museum, which currently owns the piece, claims that it is willing to return the artifact, it's progress in actually sending the cylinder has been delayed. The Head of Press for the British Museum, Hannah Boulton, is quoted as saying, "When lending any material you have to check that it is an appropriate moment," which encouraged a quick retort from the Iranians claiming that a "post-election situation" is to blame for the British Museum's hesitancy.

While it is entirely possible that the British Museum does intend to loan the piece to the Iranian government and is simply working to secure its safety as an ancient artifact, the fact remains that the recent sentencing of three Iranian protesters to death for their roles in this summers pro-democracy protests could potentially "delay" their action.

While a small disagreement altogether, I personally feel this is yet another example of the unwillingness of the West and Islamic world's to intersect. As long as squabbles like this continue to define the public relationship between the United States, its allies and the Islamic Republic of Iran, no tentative accords will be reached.

Learn in English from Barack Obama!

It turns out President Obama's speech skills extend past the American youth.

Publishers in Japan has starting creating "learn English" audio tools in order to help people learn English. Over a dozen different versions have cropped up, including "Yes, I Can With Obama: 40 Magical English Phrases From Presidential E-mails," and have done very successful in the Japanese market.



Tokyo beauty salon owner Utako Sakai says that she often puts it in over music and that "all our customers love it."



Since Obama has prefect enunciation and speaks slowly, he is the perfect English teacher. And the speeches themselves have struck a chord in the Japanese. Even those who do not have the basic understanding of English necessary to understand the speeches are still moved by the words, even when all they understand is "Yes, we can."



The Obama speech phenomenon in Japan peaked last spring, and is the sign of a Japanese public that wants a dynamic leader a la Obama, one who communicates as effectively and passionately as Obama. 



image by Miki Tanikawa for the New York Times

Gaga Rocks SNL, Drops S-bomb, and Cancels Tour (but not in that order)

I bet your enjoying your Sunday. So you probably don't want to hear all about the possibly hermaphrodite singer, Lady Gaga. Well, that's too bad. Because she did something awesome. She cursed on national television.

Now, everyone knows that in America, we just do not do those things. Those things are bad. But that did not stop Lady Gaga from singing her song "Paparazzi," curse words and all, to the public audience at 12:50 in the morning on SNL. And I say, good. People curse, it's real life. And it's not like any kids should be watching SNL anyway. It's on at the same time as those promiscuous movies for a reason.

You can watch the incriminating evidence here (it's around the 3:00 mark):

Additionally (and tragically), Lady Gaga has canceled her Fame Kills tour with Kanye West over "creative differences." Perhaps her told that, hey, he was going to let her finish singing "LoveGame," but that Lil Wayne's Lollipop had that best phallic allusion? We may never know.