On the Shelf

Epiphany of today:
As I sat in my first period, my friends and I were discussing what we're good at. Caroline is good at swimming, Kate is a math geek, Claire can play the flute really well (my first period is Orchestra), and I realized: I peaked in eighth grade. I was the "valedictorian" of middle school, starting point guard on our basketball team, and first chair in concert band. After that everything just kind of went downhill. Not that I'm stupid, nonathletic, and unable to play the flute now, I'm just mediocre. I found new things to excel at. I can quote The Office like it's my profession, I can write fairly well, I'm "head host" at 800 Degrees (which virtually means nothing). But I'm still happy.

Watching:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. When you think of Jim Carrey you think of Dumb and Dumber, Yes Man, or Bruce Almighty. I think of Eternal Sunshine and the immense emotional baggage that comes with the movie. The first time I watched it, I sat in the living room, and laughed along with the characters, but became somber as Carrey began losing his memory (it's a confusing movie to explain). That was sophomore year. Last week, my boss and I were discussing it and so I decided to rewatch it. I knew what was coming, so I sat in my room with all the lights off and just bawled my eyes out for the last hour. It is genuinely the saddest movie I have ever seen. But it's so good I still watch it.

Reading:
I wrote earlier about a John Steinbeck short piece we read in one of my classes and we're reading more. East of Eden is Honors American's latest choice. I like Steinbeck's style almost as much as I like Salinger's. I'm only one chapter into the novel that is supposed to be a "modern" (1950s) retelling of Genesis. Being raised in a Christian household, I know the book of Genesis pretty well and I can find many correlations. The first chapter is basically just the speaker (who is unknown at the time) going through how his home became his home. The valley he lives in went through stages and he starts from when the Native American's lived there. It's so detailed and articulate. I just enjoy reading it. Although it is 600 pages long, so this enjoyment may end quickly. We'll see.

What I'm Loving

One of my goals is to attend a Ted Talk...I really mean it. They have collections of the funniest talks (Ted Laughs) on Netflix and I watch them constantly. This week I watched one in particular I found very funny. It was about the trends manager of Youtube, who "professionally watch youtube videos."

He says there are three steps for a video to become viral:

1. Tastemakers

2. Communities of participators 

3. Unexpectedness

A tastemaker would be a person people look up to, the example he gives is when Jimmy Kimmel tweeted about the video Double Rainbow. A community of participators is the people who join together to love a video, or make fun of it (like Friday, by Rebecca Black).  

All the spikes on the graph are Fridays, he points out. The reason it began picking up was Tosh.0 talked about it and formed community participation; a society dedicated to making fun of Rebecca Black. With other forms of entertainment, there is only one party benefiting--the viewers. But with the internet now people can participate, make response videos, or even parodies.Unexpectedness is that moment where a not-so-funny video becomes hilarious because of one quick occurrence that was completely unexpected. 

This was interesting because I've never really thought about what makes something famous, or how the viewers are the ones who decide whether or not the videos are good. It's personal and it's completely dependent on us.

Off the Shelf

I hate being sick. Feeling sick I deal with, but coughing my lungs up, fever running, and aching body sick is something that I can't handle. Last week I was subject to such sickness and it was disgusting. On a more positive note, it allowed for plenty of reading, watching, and listening.

Reading
I've been reading Franny and Zooey by Salinger. I'm about fifty pages in and I absolutely love it. I'm not sure why. I mean, nothing is really happening. Maybe it's just his style. It just seems so hopeless. I've posted about Catcher in the Rye before and this novel has the same feel. I mean, they're totally different, but at the same time completely the same. They're just so truthful. Painfully so.
Besides Salinger, I've also been reading Slaughterhouse Five. I read it last year for an English project in Jankowski's AP Lit and I loved it. So I've been skimming and remembering. It's heartbreaking; there are so many statements that are so completely accurate, but no one has ever said them before.

Watching
My sister and I have this agreement regarding TV. She has Hulu Plus and I have Netflix, so we exchanged passwords and I love this system. While I was sick and lying on the couch, disgusting, I watched episode after episode of Community. Staring the flawless Donald Glover (the man I dedicated a post to), the handsome Joel McHale, the talented feminist Gilliam Jacobs, and the HILARIOUS Danny Pudi, it's one of my favorite shows. The Abed/Troy (Pudi/Glover) relationship is probably one of the funniest on TV; the witty bromance thoroughly enjoyable to audiences (especially me). They rival the Jim/Dwight relationship...and that is saying something.

Listening 
While rearranging our living room last week, I discovered a CD I haven't listened to since fourth or fifth grade. The type of CD that no matter when you hear it, you can't help but love it. Well, if you're a bluegrass fan. I'm usually into more of the rock and roll underground music, but underground bluegrass can be just as enjoyable. Nickel Creek. They became famous at a very young age, and wrote all their own music. On my favorite album "Nickel Creek" (they were very original--but seriously, they were) for every two or three songs with lyrics, they have one of just music, featuring Chris Thile on mandolin.

 I grew up on The Fox, my dad would play the guitar and I would dance and sing, to the best of my six year old ability. I also loved The Lighthouse's Tale, even though I didn't really understand it at the time. Chris Thile was only 19 at the time the album was released; just this past year he won the MacArthur "genius" Grant for 500,000 dollars to do nothing but study music.

Who knew he'd end up looking so adorable?