disney FINALLY ends the beard oppression!

January 23rd, 2012

“What do you mean I have to shave my beard?!”

It has been a long known fact that Disney has always had a very strict facial hair policy when it comes to their cast members.  As in, you can’t have any.  Well, they did lighten up back in 2000 and allowed their employees to have mustaches …just so long as it was grown during time off work.  I always found it funny (funny-ironic, not funny-haha) that Walt himself had a signature ‘stache (no really, think about it …can you think of an image where he didn’t have one? …Exactly) and yet he strictly prohibited them under his own park grooming restrictions.

Starting February 3rd, employees from the parks in both California and Florida will be allowed to grow whatever they want on their face.  I’m sure there will be standards that should be obvious in any work place (you know, please keep your chin pubes clean …no critters are allowed to live in said beard unless it’s an approved trademarked Disney character …and anything you grow will be assumed automatic property of the Disney corporation).  Naturally rules and restrictions will apply.  BUT, it’s nice to know that after close to 60 years, the company can bend the rules a little.  Oh you party animals, don’t go too crazy over there…

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frankie goes to hollywood (the roxy, to be specific)

January 23rd, 2012

now this can be construed as ‘glitz and glam’ …of sorts

No, for the record I haven’t fallen off that proverbial horse of being better about keeping up with writing.  I was off having a little adventure.  COOL NEW BAND ALERT!  You might have heard it here first, and you’re welcome.

I will preface that I cringe having to be “that girl” who goes on about her boyfriend’s band.  I’d be even more embarrassed given that I have wandered into that age range of “adult …like not anywhere stuck between teen and adult …but actual adult” (as much as I don’t feel that way most of the time) …and I’m still with someone in a band.  But I’m not embarrassed about any of it. Quite the opposite.  First of all, I truly believe in the band and think they’re easily likable and great at what they do.  It’s classic with a twist.  Think if Easy Rider, The Doors and a splash of Does It Offend You, Yeah? had a baby.  That baby would be named Frankie Marathon.  Think Head Automatica before they made Popaganda (hey, we all make mistakes).

Second of all, I’m not embarrassed about being a grown ass lady with a “band guy” boyfriend because I understand what it feels like to desire something out of life that isn’t necessarily the road most traveled.  For the past six years I’ve known him, making music is all he has wanted to do.  Well, actually, there have been a lot of random things he has wanted to do …but music has been the one steadfast desire.  I admire that he never let his creative interests be fully be eclipsed by life’s more mundane requirements.  To one extent or another, he has always been working on something musical -even if it was just for himself.  Well now he has figured out how to make a healthy living for himself with the flexibility of making music he can perform and share! …and I LOVE what he is bringing to the table.

So yeah, you’ll be hearing quite a lot about Frankie Marathon from here on out.  Because I believe with every fiber that they are worth discovering.  Though it is sort of fun and hipster-cool (which I’m not, I’ve long since fallen out of touch since pop culture has taken quite a tumble in my ever so humble opinion) to feel like I’m in on an amazing band people haven’t heard of yet …good music is for sharing.

Of course everyone is prone to some level of being biased.  But, it should be well established I’m generally pretty outspoken about things I like and don’t like.  If my fella was in a band I didn’t love, I wouldn’t be going on about them (and he has been …they were good for their chosen genre, but not my cup of tea … so I supported of course, but I wasn’t exactly rushing out to sing their praises).

Friday night they put on a show at The Roxy Theatre on the infamous Sunset Strip.  It wasn’t their first show.  They’ve played other venues, and every show has been good.  But Friday night felt like a departure.  It doesn’t quite feel like the birth of a band until you see them on a classic stage taking strangers by surprise.  Most people don’t expect to get their socks rocked off anymore when they head out to a local indie show.  One of my best friends in the world took the trouble to fly down for it and I think it’s safe to say they were so great, she felt she got her money’s worth.  That explains my momentary absence from the writing.  In fact, they were so good that they were written up by Burbanklife.net and got their article on the front page of the site.  Not too shabby for the opening act.

Yes, they have a Facebook page (if you haven’t already, you should “like” them …because as much of an aversion I have to the site, there’s no denying it has a lot to do with success …after all, musical success is generally a popularity contest …how are promoters supposed to know how cool you are if you don’t have a fabulous Facebook page?)  Yes, they have their EP on iTunes.  It’s called “Enthusiasm Flags.”  The best $5.94 you’ll ever spend (quite a bargain, considering).  Pressed albums are coming in the next couple of weeks, with new material coming shortly after that.

There will be touring to come, but in the meantime, if you’re in the Southern California area there are upcoming shows in the works.  The recorded material is good stuff, but to see them live exceeds all else.  You will leave feeling like you experienced something good, really good …and refreshed by the fact that there is something so good out there to enjoy in a world full of less than interesting entertainment.  That said, they will be performing for your pleasure on Thursday February 2nd at The Doll Hut in Anaheim, Friday February 3rd at Amplify on Melrose, another show at The Roxy on Saturday February 18th (they were invited back real quick) and on Sunday February 26th at Di Piazza’s in Long Beach.  There is also a show that is just about to be confirmed for The Whiskey A Go-Go in March.

There you have it.  You have all the information.  Go, listen to them and if you like what you hear “like” them in the cyber sense on Facebook.  Then head over to a show and see what I’m talking about first hand.  If you end up not agreeing with me, feel free to write me back calling me a bold-faced liar and to print that there are opposing thoughts on the matter.  I’ll do it as penance for wasting your time.  I’m that confident in my boasting.  If I were smarter, I’d have just pressed my excitement for this “up and coming” band without mentioning it’s my fella’s project BUT what can I say?  I’m just too proud of his good work. Let a gal brag a little.

Enjoy and spread the gospel that is Frankie Marathon.

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oh, cool, they found a severed head in my back yard…

January 18th, 2012

Oh yeah, it’s all glitz and glam around here…

Okay, so not exactly my back yard.  But close, eerily close.  I pretty much live right below the Hollywood sign nestled up in the hills.  I enjoy feeling like I’m removed from things and am surrounded by an unexpected amount of nature while at the same time I can drive 5 minutes down and be in the middle of Hollywood.  It’s rather ideal to me.  No, I’m not trying to sound like a cool kid, actually, it comes with a ton of annoyances …but not as big as what I’m about to share, so more on those other pesky annoyances at a later date.

So last night, there were (at least!) two police choppers flying around my neighborhood.  One was hovering and the other had a search light grazing the area.  This is went on ALL night.  This morning/afternoon they were STILL out there!  I know, that doesn’t sound like anything.  But trust me, it gets old fast.  This is a very lovely neighborhood.  In fact, despite the unique annoyances of living where I do, I remind myself that I’m a very lucky lady getting to reside where I do and consequently shut up (mostly). I’m accustomed to the occasional idiot thinking it’s a good idea to try climbing to the (very restricted and supervised) sign and a cop will come out and that will be that.  Well…they found a human head today …not attached to a body.  Then they found a human hand, I’m assuming it was once attached to the same body the head was once on.  Well, that just REALLY puts the other “annoyances” in perspective.   Those choppers are starting to make sense.  I wonder what else they’ve found since…

I don’t have much specific information.  I don’t watch the news.  Hey, it would usually be talking about something like the Golden Globes’ dress hits and misses …that is L.A. news …it seriously is.  Or, it’s negative stuff I can’t do anything about and it’s being spun for entertainment purposes/ratings.  Gross.  So, I have some article reading to do.  I guess.  I don’t know how much I want to know.  I enjoy walking my dog (Bowser, in case you weren’t in the know) without feeling skeeved out. It feels like a morbid thing to read up on all the details…given the fact…it now is what it is.  But it certainly felt like something to mention under the category of “things going on in my neighborhood.”

Anyway, thought that was an interesting goings-on in my neighborhood.  How are things in yours?

UPDATE:  Still not a lot of information aside from it being a 60 something year old man’s head.  A DOG came trotting out from the bushes with the head in its mouth on a hike (SEE?! My fear regarding my Hollywood Hill hikes with Bowser aren’t exactly unwarranted! …and to think I used to only really be concerned about rattle snakes and coyotes …bo-ring).  Oh, and they found another hand …it’s like a morbid Easter hunt around here.  Lovely.

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don’t call them new year “resolutions” just call them “optimistic goals” and do your best

January 18th, 2012

So January is already coming to a close …that’s not to say I haven’t been working on this thing “behind the scenes” …and hey, this is why it’s called an “optimistic goal” …HAPPY NEW YEAR!

…It really takes the pressure off.  But seriously, make good goals and try your best.  Resolutions can be broken, then you shrug and don’t bother to try again until the next year.  In most cases, that’s a lot of time to say “oh well” and not self improve.  With a goal, you can drop the ball (Ha, get it? Just a little belated new years humor for you) …then just pick it up and keep trying.

Oh!  Why hello there. Yeah, I know, it has been a while.  Maintaining my blog is one of my major optimistic goals for the year that I hope to carry into future years.  For a while, I had some legitimate excuses (put all my woman hours into being sumpremely awesome at school …yes, I went back, more on that later …my lil’ old computer got tired out and died after an honorable run of service…)  But here I am with a little break between semesters and a sexy MacBook Pro powered up and ready to do my bidding.  No more excuses, time to start writing again.  Well, unless school starts taking it out of me again …but we’ll jump that bridge on a flaming motorcycle when we get there.

One of the things that was inhibiting me was that I wanted to try handling my blogging in a different way than I had in the past.  More me, less the “Perez” format.  That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy what I was doing before and that it was any less “me,” but I think I’d rather be a little more personal.  Not SUPER personal, c’mon, it’s still a Google-able entity (maybe way down on the search results…but still…).  It’ll still be pretty random; news tid bits that are of interest to me from time to time, movies that I thought may or may not have sucked …but I’d like to make more of an effort to write about the things I do, see, hear, say, etc. Essays, rambling, whatever you want to call them.  I refrained from that in the past because most people said the same thing my teachers would say when I was the only person in the class that would turn in a paper that not only hit the minimum criteria of the word count …but they’d then enforce a maximum word limit to papers.  So, if you complain about things like having to read too much (and hi, if you’re a teacher…that’s sorta your job, you just got lazy with all the two paragraph papers written with Courrier New font …1.5 or double spaced) you can just skip what you don’t like.  This isn’t required reading.  I just hope if you’re here, it’s because you enjoy what’s here. Skim as you see fit.  Besides, on my busier (or lazier) days the post(s) will probably stay on the concise side.

Let’s see, what has changed and what is still so in terms of what I have blathered on about in the past:

Lady Gaga…Yes, I do still love her.  I don’t feel the need to give updates on her as she has hit that point where she can easily do that for herself (I was still talking about her even when she got “big” but you know what I mean …no need to post something daily).  I would like her more if she stayed more cryptic and simply remained a wacky entertainer …because when she opens her mouth in magazines, etc. most of the time she sounds like a douchette.  I think that comes with the territory of being an entertainer.  In such a line of work, you have to have a screw (or more) loose and you have to have a LOT of confidence in yourself.  I mean that in a good way, I can attest. For better or worse, that’s what it takes.  I care about her ultimate message and I enjoy her as an entertainer.  …but I like her a lot more when not paying much attention to her interviews.

Glee…Nope. Not into it any more.  I know that’s crazy given how much I enjoyed the first season, and parts of season 2 …but I have to say, I haven’t watched a single episode of season 3.  I’m just not interested anymore.  They veered so far off the original path by paying all attention to guest star and “tribute” gimmicks.  Loved me some Britney tribute, but it all went downhill from that (Rocky Horror “tribute” crushed my heart …to put it in the non-dramatic sense).  No care for story at all. Meh.

Drew (Barrymore …duh)…Uh, YEAH!  She will always be my favorite.  Good or bad, always.

Gay folk and their civil rights…Yup, that’s always going to be something I fiercely have opinions about.  It feels trivial mentioning this in the same list as all the pop culture stuff mentioned above…but I have certainly brought it up a lot in the past, and I more likely than not still will. It’s because of those fierce opinions and all…

Re-makes…Still HATE them (for the most part, with rare exceptions) and will continue to rant about them even though it doesn’t do any good and they will continue to be made since dumb asses keep going to them.  The nerve.

I’m sure there’s more, but you get the gist.  Besides, like I said I plan more on writing from a more personal point of view from now on, versus the pop culture blurbs I’d been churning.

So, there’s plenty to catch up on, and we will.  Perhaps I’ll try to span it out over a few entries vs. spilling into the world’s longest “So how have you been?” response that was actually meant to be rhetorical by the other party.  But then, if you didn’t want an answer, you wouldn’t be here …I think.

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janet jackson is a-okay with lady gaga

November 10th, 2010

Janet Jackson recently told Larry King in an interview that she loves Lady GaGa for her talent and even compared her to  Grace Jones.

She says:

“I love her. I enjoy her music. I feel that she came along and she introduced something a little bit different for the people of today. For myself, I don’t mean this in a negative way at all, it’s a little reminiscent of Grace Jones, how big and out there her costumes are.

I think she is very talented; she writes her own music and has a wonderful voice. I had the opportunity of meeting her for the first time, at a concert of hers. I knew of her before she became the Lady GaGa everyone knows. Her story was incredible and when I knew of this artist, I was rooting for her before she had gotten this recording contract.”

Can you imagine if these two did a duet together? It has to happen, it’s inevitable…

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