LADY GAGA KILLS THE VMAS.

Speaking of Breakthroughs...

Coldplay's "Strawberry Swing" music video. Just so you can get to see what it is I'm talking about.

VMA's: Who should win, who will win?

Tonight is the MTV Video Music Awards Show. I do not get the channel, not to mention it is the Sabbath, so I won't be watching it. But I WILL be keeping track of who wins what. And I WILL be commenting on this site whenever something interesting happens.
Tonight, Lady Gaga is nominated for 13 awards from her own works, not to mention the five that she's nominated for from Beyonce's "Video Phone." So she's already made history.
Of course, (because I do so love to share my opinions) I am going to provide you with my personal predictions and preferences in regards to every one of the categories. When it comes to the VMA's, my philosophy is that the awards should be given to the best video, not necessarily the best artists. You'll see what I mean once I get started, I think. And heeeeere we go!

BEST NEW ARTIST:
Jason DeRulo: "In My Head"
Should Win, and probably will win. Jason's got some amazing dance skills. As a best NEW ARTIST nominee, this video really shows what the guy can do and that he will stick in the biz for a while. A breakthrough artist like Jason needs to create an iconic image of himself through his videos, and I think he does that well amidst the lights and the strong rock beats.

BEST COLLABORATION:
Beyonce and Lady Gaga "Telephone"
You cannot deny that Lady Gaga and Beyonce make the best collaboration for a video this year. Their performances outshine all the other collaborations. But how to choose between "Telephone" and "Video Phone"? Here's where that whole "It's-about-the-video-not-the-artist" philosophy comes into play. "Telephone" is obviously a more thought-out, artistically stimulating, complete video experience. There's a plot, rad imagery, and great dancing. "Video Phone" just has a lot of plastic guns and booty-shaking. It just does not compare to the artistry and sophisitication that "Telephone" presents us with. But does the world agree? I really can't be sure on this one.

BEST DANCE VIDEO:
Lady Gaga "Bad Romance"
Should win. Will win. There is no comparison to the level of artistic vision that this video possesses. I like dance videos that are more than just dancing. All these other nominees besides "Bad Romance" is just a club scene that you see over and over again in video after video. I had to stop watching the Cascada one because it was just soooo monotonous. Let's make the dancing interesting. How do we do it? Weird alien costumes, underwear, and fire, of course!

BEST FEMALE VIDEO:
This one's hard. I want "Bad Romance" to win because I want to see Gaga do well, but I get the feeling Tay-Tay is gonna take this one. "Fifteen" is a GREAT video! It's artsy, tells a story, leaves behind a great message, really brings out the best in Taylor. It's a beautiful experience for both the eyes and the ears. Way to go!
I also liked Katy Perry's silly music video. It was very colorful and fun and the costumes were great. Some people say it's annoying to have a video that doesn't really go along with the lyrics of the music, but I like it when directors play with your mind and make you go out and look for connections. The "Telephone" video is the same way for me.

BEST HIP HOP VIDEO:
DEFINITELY Eminem. Hands-down. This video speaks to so many. The lyrics are triumphant and fit well in the setting in which Shady is placed. Furthermore, it is incredibly well-crafted. I wonder how many artists can portray the edge of the earth, the end of the world, as well as was done in this video. Second place would definitely go to "Airplanes," but there's really nothing more than Hayley and B.o.b. just sitting around and singing, which can get a little boring. The rest of these videos are just fluff and not worth watching.

BEST MALE VIDEO:
Eminem again, mainly because B.o.b.'s video has a girl in it and the rest of them are (once again) just singers standing around or talking to girls. The emotion in Em's video runs so high and there are such breathtaking climaxes in the cinematography that go so well with his lyricism. I think the world understands this and will pick this video for the award. Props, Em, Props.

BEST POP VIDEO:
This one's hard. I love "Nothin' on You." It's a fun song that's presented in a really cool method. But is it POP? Does it define POP? No. Does Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" define POP? Sadly, no. It's more futuristic, Euro-rave, club scene. So this video needs the POP quality that fits the award. Katy Perry's "Calfornia Gurls" fits this well. Candy, rappers, naked women, colors, and fun. Yes. This is POP. As for what the real world thinks, it's a toss-up.

BEST ROCK VIDEO:
Let's first narrow it down by getting rid of the ones that WON'T win. Sorry, Florence and the Machine and MGMT. And let's get rid of "Ignorance" too. You can only have so much of hayley williams singing with a lightbulb in her hand. So now we're down to 30 Seconds to Mars and Muse. I LOVE the Muse video, but I think it's the song that makes it so great more than the video does. Once again, I'm rating the VIDEO, not the band or even simply the music. 30STM has not only an epic song, but an epic video to go with it. They should take the Moonman. Sadly, I don't think voters distinguish as well as I do what it means to have a good video, so they'll probably pick Paramore.

VIDEO OF THE YEAR:
Also very hard, but "Telephone" should take it. Why? It has changed history! It's not just a music video, it's a short film! In that 8 minutes of amazing, you get intrigue, skilled choreography, amazing costumes, and two of the world's biggest divas in one place. How much more epic can you get? This video DEFINES 2010. People will never look at music videos in the same way after "Telephone." I am very confident that it will win.

BEST ART DIRECTION:
I'm not a professional critic, so I don't have the best understanding of what it means for art to be well-directed, but I will say that "Bad Romance" seemed like a pretty hard undertaking that turned out very very successful. It touches on everything people love about music videos. A catchy tune, a recognizable dance, iconic costumes, and a storyline (of sorts). Few of the other videos do it for me.

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY:
Janelle Monae's "Tightrope" has some WICKED dance moves. It takes real skill simply to dance that choreography, much less make it up. To have another one of those videos take this award when such artistry lies before us would be a real shame.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
"Empire State of Mind" has such a moving backdrop of epic Manhatten scenery. Plus I love the black-and-white touch. And in the end, you get the color and the lights and the Jay-Z and the Alicia Keys. It's quite perfect, really. Class and sophistication for a very classy and sophisticated rap.

BEST DIRECTION:
I really feel like "Telephone" should win this one even though it's not even part of the lineup. I think the way Jonas Akerulnd responded to the vision as wacky as Lady Gaga's was simply phenomenal. But since it's not even a nominee, I will take Gaga's "Bad Romance" as a good enough substitute, for very similar reasons. The mood that is evoked in that video is very wacky and it takes some serious thought and artistry to put something like that together. Furthermore, unlike any of the other videos which just requires either standing and singing or mass movement, some actual ACTING had to occur in the "Bad Romance" video. Ergo, a skilled director was required.

BEST EDITING:
Mike Snow's "Animal" must have taken some KILLER editing. All those different shots put together? How could it not win?

BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS:
I am VERY torn between Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown" and Dan Black's "Symphonies." I think I'll give it to Dan Black simply because the VARIETY of special effects present in that video is much more impressive than just black-and-white splash ink in 21st Century Breakdown. But they are both GREAT videos, nonetheless. I also appreciate Muse, but again, it's not enough to keep in the running. I'm wondering where exactly the special effects happen in the Lady Gaga music video, to be quite honest.

BREAKTHROUGH VIDEO:
I like all these videos, but "Strawberry Swing" is by far one of the GREATEST videos I've ever seen and completely deserves the title "Breakthrough." Whoever thought of that idea should be given a huge hug. It's a happy video, a creative medium, and definitely painstakingly thought through and executed. Well, done, Coldplay!!! Moonman for you!!

So... Gaga deserves 5 awards. That sounds like a good amount. It would take a miracle for her to sweep all of the awards she was nominated for. It would be amazing and incredible and a great, but impossible. Besides, there's just too many other great artists that hardly get any recognition whatsoever that I feel need some time to shine.
So go Gaga! Win the awards you deserve and let's enjoy the VMA's!!

Oops, they did it again.

Okay so my old roommates did that thing again where they all got together and did something without even bothering to invite me. I suppose half of them live together, but if they still took the time to call the other ones over -- some live only a block away from me -- and didn't bother to tell me to meet them up too, I would say this is a definite sign that they don't care about me or my feelings. Or they may simply not know me very well. They may just be assuming that I have "my new friends now" and that I don't care about them. But you'd think after living with me for seven and a half months they'd figure stuff like that out by now and realize that yes, I do care about them and yes, it does hurt me when they go off and do a bunch of fun things together without inviting me. It just screams "I DON'T LIKE YOU" and that causes me to wonder what there is not to like about myself, and then I start listing all of the things that are wrong with me and that list can get pretty large.
I suppose they did come and give me a cake on my birthday. Maybe I'm just so ungrateful and pessimistic that I forget all the good things my friends do for me. But I feel like the negatives far outweigh the positives right now.

Things Going On Today: Saw 2 apostles, ate a great tomato salad, and tonight's the VMA's.
Listening to: ... nothing at the moment... wow.
Blessings: New roommates, and the fact that I live in Utah so I can see general authorities much more often than in Minnesota.

Layout Change... Again

I'm always changing the layout of my blogs because I have never found one that has completely matched my personality. This one is no exception.
But I thought it was cute and definitely more interesting than just plain white background so we're gonna just have this for some time.

It's way too late for me to be up right now, so I'll end there.

Things Going on Today: Lunch with Aubrey, Emily, and Riley. Lots of lounging. Wrote a song.
Listening To: "I Feel Immortal" by Tarja Turunen
Blessings: Weekends. Music.

Tarja Turunen: I Feel Immortal

What a great video and what a great song!! This is one of Tarja's deepest songs I've heard.

This whole album seems really good. Really goth. Really good.

Tarja Turunen: I Feel Immortal

What a great video and what a great song!! This is one of Tarja's deepest songs I've heard.

This whole album seems really good. Really goth. Really good.

More PETER PAN

Ok. So I watched 2 Peter Pan-inspired movies this weekend with my roommates:

1. HOOK

I got this movie for my twentieth birthday. Apparently it was sitting in the bottom of a box in my mother's closet for months but she never thought about giving it to me until now. Which is quite unfortunate, because I really like this movie and had I owned it for a long time I would have it memorized by now, like my cousin Aubrey. Her younger brother, my cousin Taggart, is obsessed with this movie. Exactly why he loves THIS movie over any other is still unknown to me, but I also think it is an excellent family film.
Robin Williams is one of my favorite actors, and Dustin Hoffman portrays the infamous Captain Hook very well. The plot is also quite clever. I wonder how many of us wonder what would have happened if Peter Pan ever DID leave Neverland and what kind of a man he would be.
Favorite Parts: Rufio, Robin Williams, Maggie Smith (the ultimate Old Lady), Hook's Costume, "Firefly from Hell," and the incredibly elaborate sets.
Least Favorite Parts: The cheesey song the girl sings, Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell, the corny "family values" message, and the silly 90's clothes and technology.

2. FINDING NEVERLAND

This movie is my second favorite Johnny Depp movie, aside from the POTC series, of course. I love him when he's cleanshaven and speaking in a Scottish accent. I remember seeing this movie and loving it when I was very young but I forgot most of it, so watching it now was like watching it for the first time. This movie is bittersweet, for sure, but the thing that is most depressing for me is the fact that I have completely lost the childlike whimsy this film portrays. I used to have an imagination just as powerful as Barry's and the children's, but I have long since lost it. Watching films like these makes me want to be a kid again.
Favorite Parts: Johnny Depp, of course. Peter Ostrum, the child actor, is incredible. I wish he would never grow old. The death of Sylvia is also very moving, as well as the end of the entire movie.
Least Favorite Parts: The wife, and the frustrations about childhood fantasy that I have already mentioned earlier.

THIS IS JUST TO SAY

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

.

-- William Carlos Williams

Listening to: "Please Read the Letter" by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

Things going on today: TGIF. Party? aaaaand.... Emily.

Blessings: More emily. Plums.

A Song from my Younger Years

I've been thinking a lot about my time in Joy School. When I was four and five years old.

Oh, boy. I've got joy.
I do, I do.
It starts in my heart
and spreads to my head
in a minute or two.
And did you know
it can grow on my toe?
And keep my knees
So they don't freeze?
I feel so neat
from my head to my feet
when I've got joy.

Oh, boy. I've got joy.
I do, I do.
It starts in my heart
and spreads to my head
in a minute or two.
But the best place it shows
is below my nose.
For a mile or two
I've got a smile for you.
I feel so neat
from my head to my feet
when I've got joy.

I've got joy.

I've got joy.