You know what's annoying?

It's annoying when you're Facebook-stalking your significant other and then in the top right sidebar, Facebook is all like, "Hey!  Click right here to look at old pictures of your man with his ex-girlfriend!"

And then you click on it!  Because you're a total asshole!

So annoying!

The sexiest girls are the ones who don’t give a fuck

Once again, from IMBoyCrazy:

What Men Think (words to live by) is a really good list of suggestions for women from a guy reader of Alexi's site.

Some of my favorite parts [my comments in italics]:

• Yep, your ex was an asshole. We kind of want to know why, but there’s a point where you’re just dumping daddy-rage on him... Take some responsibility for the relationship not working out.  [I need to learn this one!  I'm still bitter about some of my past breakups and I catch myself still shit-talking my exes on occasion.  Why?? So lame!]
• Don’t give up on giving head or hand jobs cos your neck/hands are tired. You’d think we’re assholes if we did the same.  [Whoa!  I've totally done this to a guy before, now I feel bad!]
• Around the first date it’s all on us: Don’t call us... Don’t go text fishing. You have to kind of let us know you’re open to our advances (being super aloof just looks like the same as “fuck off” to us), but MAKE US DO THE WORK.  [I have a problem with being super aloof...  This is kind of a "Rules" rule, by letting the guy do most of the work in the beginning.  I totally agree with this!]
• Rarely give us the benefit of the doubt. Like once or twice.  After that, you’re letting shit slide and soon you’ll be making excuses for us. Call us out on our shit.  [This one takes a long time to learn.]  
• Girls can be curvy. Girls can have small boobs and be slim. The sexiest girls are the ones who don’t give a fuck what we think about how they look. WE REALLY LIKE THAT.  [I don't have as many body issues as I used to, but this is another one I learned over a long time.]
• You can never fix us. If we’re douches, we’re staying that way. You are not going to be the one. Save yourself some heartache.  

Read the whole article here.

In space, no one can hear you scream. Because there's not enough molecules in space for the sound to propogate. DER!

click for larger version.  img src: http://io9.com/

I got a kick out of this post from io9:  Bad Move Physics Report Card, which rates the accuracy of science in movies about space.

Star Wars got the worst score.  (You can't dodge a laser, dum dum, it moves at the speed of light!)  Yet, the 1983 film The Right Stuff got a clean bill of health for its accurate portrayal of space-related phenomenon.

The Right Stuff was nominated for Best Picture the year it was released and is one of my all-time favorites movies.  It's based on a book by Tom Wolfe about the original Mercury 7 Astronauts and early NASA days. A lot of it was filmed at Edwards Air Force Base, where I lived and worked for a few years. Beautifully shot, touching, funny, and a great ensemble cast. Highly recommended!

The original trailer does not do the film justice. So here's the first few minutes of the movie:

You're a princess from a society of immortal warriors, I'm a rich kid with issues

Batman explains why "It's complicated" for him and Wonder Woman to get into a relationship...

OMG Joan Jett Barbie!

Hey, check it out-- it's Joan Jett Barbie! I kinda want one. I love her studded bracelet and little red converse.

Mattel just released the doll as part of a Ladies of the 80s special collectors edition along with Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Harry and Cher.  If you wanted to be authentic, you could get all four and have them move into a1970's Barbie Dream House, with an elevator.  (I had one of these when I was really little, I thought I was so cool.)

So glad that Joan Jett stood the test of time.  She rules.  I even liked The Runaways, about the beginning of her career with her first band.  See it if you haven't yet.

Man, only circa early 1980's Joan Jett can pull off a mullet.

 

"Lonely is a freedom... lonely is healing if you make it."

I love this video!  I was reminded of it today from Frank Warren of PostSecret, who said it was one of his favorite memes of 2010.

"If you're happy in your head then solitude is blessed and alone is okay."


It's called "How To Be Alone" by filmmaker, Andrea Dorfman, and poet/singer/songwriter, Tanya Davis.  The full poem is listed at the Youtube page.

There's something sacred about being content with being alone.  It's what to strive for when you're in-between relationships, when you have time and space to figure out who you really are and to love yourself.  Even within a relationship, alone time is important.  Maybe I live too much in my head, but I always feel off-center if I don't spend quality time alone, just me and my thoughts.  And maybe some coffee.  And maybe a sunny day.  And maybe my bike.

This chick loves mathematical doodling.

Saw this via NPR's science correspondent, Robert Krulwich.



More videos at Vi Hart's website.

Green Porno

If you've never seen Isabella Rossellini's 'Green Porno' or 'Seduce Me' series from the Sundance channel, stop what you're doing and watch them!



I just heard more than I wanted to know about ducks reproductive systems from the Sperm episode of Radiolab (which you can hear for yourself, embedded below).

Bat for Lashes on a bike!

My friend Ingrid reminded me of this video today.  I love the creepy Donnie Darko feel and the sweet gem sweater.  The song is pretty great, too.

"What's A Girl To Do" from her debut album Fur and Gold from 2006


Nathasha Khan is known for her "rad personal style," lots of gold and headbands.  According to Wikipedia, she was born in 1979, just like me.  Hooray for hot 31-year-olds!

Breakups

I started reading the comic Questionable Content two years ago.  It's about a bunch of nerdy hip 20 year olds who work in a coffee shop together.  It reads like a soap opera.   

Two of the characters, who had been dating for a while, had a fight recently that ended in a break-up.  It all started around here with an otherwise innocent conversation about porn...

I'm looking forward to how the author explores how two main characters deal with a failed relationship.  Since their social lives are so intertwined, it's bound to have a huge affect on the other characters as well.

Warpaint

The new Warpaint album "The Fool" is really good.

The latest single, "Undertow"


"Billie Holiday" (live version) from 2009's Exquisite Corpse:


I'm also digging "Set Your Arms Down" (live version) The kinda remind me of Electrelane, who are great.

This one's for the ladies

Dad emailed me this today:

"Wear a turtle-neck, retard!"

This cracked me up this morning:

how to disguise/forget about/and get rid of a hickey

from the always hilarious ImBoyCrazy

(img ganked from etsy.com)

Bedroom Databank

Atlas Sound, aka Bradford Cox, aka the really skinny guy from Deerhunter, has just released a four part "Bedroom Databank" series of previously unreleased material, mostly home recordings.  The best part is that you can download them for free from http://deerhuntertheband.blogspot.com/  I highly recommend!

"Mona Lisa" from Bedroom Databank Volume 3
This might make my Best of 2010.  I really, really like this song!

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child

This movie was pretty good!  It's on instant Netflix too, if that means anything to you.



It's a well-done documentary based on Basquiat's short career in the 1980's Manhattan art world.  Not to be confused with the dramatic movie from 1996, "Basquiat," which I want to rewatch.



I always liked Basquiat's work.  It's really sad that he died so young, however at the appropriate rockstar age of 27.  Cause of death: speedballs.

  

Daniel Johnston, the devil, and being talented

I finally saw 'The Devil and Daniel Johnston', the documentary about the singer-songwriter's rise to fame, as well as his struggles with manic depression. It's fascinating to see how debilitating mental illness can be, yet how the love of art and self-expression can persevere.



I'm fully convinced that there's a certain amount of obsession that anyone who's talented requires, some internal motivation to keep working and create.  My friend, an artist at Dolphin & Condor, once wrote about how she works on projects constantly.  She explains, "my lifestyle of creating something everyday does not make me special. I do it because I have to. I do it because otherwise I can't sleep."

Malcom Gladwell, of The Tipping Point (2000),Blink (2005), Outliers (2008), and What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures (2009), believes that exceptional talent simply comes from lots of practice, not necessarily some innate ability.  (I first heard him on Radiolab, explaining the secret of success.)

I feel like my younger years were spent obsessed with getting A's in my classes.  Maybe that's why I've spent so much time in school.  It's easy to tell that Daniel Johnston, even at a young age, was truly obsessed with making art and music.  I wish I could be a fraction of the musician he was.  I can almost play three chords on the guitar, but can never get myself to practice.  Instead I plod away in my research lab, listening to a lot of other people's music.

Probably my favorite song of his:


One of my favorite Yo La Tengo songs is actually a Daniel Johnston song:


I really hope they make a dramatic movie about Daniel's life one day.  And if so, can Sam Rockwell please play him?

(That's a young Daniel on the left and Sam on the right.  They look so similar! You think?  Besides, Sam Rockwell is awesome!  He'd be so good in this!)

Facebook takes all the fun out if it

From the comic HappySad... 

Thanks, Annie!

Is 'Sex and the City' no longer relevant? Was it ever relevant?

I feel like I grew up watching 'Sex and the City.' I was only 19 when it debuted 12 years ago.  I rewatched the entire series last year during my post-breakup, man-hating, female-empowerment, I'm-alone-at-thirty, overly-sentimental phase.

I have a lot of friends who hate on the show, and logically I understand why, which is why I'm always guilty when I admit I still kinda love the show.  The movie sequel was pretty horrible, I will give you that.  The rest of it, the show itself, is still entertaining and well-written, and still speaks to me... as a middle-class, white, unmarried girl who grew up in front of the tv in the 90s/00s....



Despite my unfashionable love of SATC, I enjoyed this short NPR blog article I saw this week, Please, PLEASE, No More Trend Pieces About Women Based On 'Sex And The City,' It was written in response to a New York Times article that used a scene from 'Sex and the City' (a ten year old tv show!) as an example of modern male/female relationship dynamics.

Remember “Sex and the City,” when Miranda goes speed-dating? She wastes her eight-minute pitch three times by giving away that she is a corporate lawyer. The fourth time she says she is a stewardess and gets asked out by a doctor.

What made the episode poignant was not just that Miranda lied about her success, but that her date did, too: it turned out he worked in a shoe store.

Is female empowerment killing romance?

 The NPR blog wrote in response:

"Remember when this successful career woman couldn't get a date on a canceled show ten years ago? Is female empowerment killing romance?" 

That is ... not a thing. That is not an argument, not a piece of evidence, not a relevant pop-culture reference. It's about as meaningful as, "Remember Mr. Ed? Are horses learning to talk?"

That horrible New York Times article, "Keeping Romance Alive in the Age of Female Empowerment," actually said a lot of other garbage, such as:

Sexual attraction in the 21st century, it seems, still feeds on 20th-century stereotypes. Now, as more women match or overtake men in education and the labor market, they are also turning traditional gender roles on their head, with some profound consequences for relationship dynamics.

Bullshit.  I can't believe this was published in 2010. 

I hate people who complain that it's "so hard" for women to be successful in their careers and their romantic life.  ...What?  Like anyone expected it to be easy?  Haven't men had to balance the two since always?  The NY Times article goes on to list a few examples of specific male/female relationships burdened by the female's success.  Okay, sure, some men will feel insecure if a woman is more successful than them--  because they're assholes!  The same guys are probably insecure if ANYONE is more successful than them.  Who wants to date an asshole?

For a while I felt weird mentioning my PhD in engineering in my OkCupid profile because I thought it might scare away men.  But then I realized I wouldn't want to date a guy who would get intimidated or scared off by that.  So why hide it?

---added 12/5/10---

Updating this post because I read yet another response to that NY Times article!  Seems to be a pretty hot topic!  This one comes from a guy perspective, Charlie Glickman, a sex columnist who happens to be a writer married to a woman who makes more money than him.

I understand that many men feel shame when they don’t live up to their expectations of what a man is “supposed” to be and overcoming that can be challenging...  I’d love to see a world in which women didn’t need to downplay their accomplishments in order to protect men’s egos. And I’d love to see a world in which men didn’t feel the pressure to live up to outdated models of masculinity that have never fit very well. 

Source: www.charlieglickman.com

MTV in the mid 90s.

I was in high school from 1993-1997 and spent nearly every afternoon after school watching MTV.  MTV still ruled back then. They just played videos including alternative Buzzclips, and occasionally shows like Singled Out, Daria, and Beavis and Butthead.  TRL and boy bands didn't even exist yet and alternative music was still cool.



Remember '120 Minutes'?  I used to get all my music recommendations from this show: Bjork, Ben Folds Five, Garbage, Radiohead, and Portishead.  Remember how hard it was to hear music before the internet?  SO hard!



The other day my friends and I were talking about Sifl and Olly.  Do you remember?  I still think of my little sister when I watch this.  I'll still get songs of theirs stuck in my head on occasion.

See also: United States of Whatever