A Very Merry Pop Quiz Kid Christmas

I made you a "thank you" video. It speaks for itself.



Happy Holidays!

The Neighbors Might Think

My favorite holiday song has got to be "Baby, It's Cold Outside." I feel a little mixed about this. The song is basically a man pressuring his date to stay at his apartment against her better judgement because it's too cold to go home. He uses mystery drinks and guilt ("what's the sense of hurting my pride?") as his tactics of persuasion. As a self-professed feminist, the feeling of anticipation that this song gives me comes with a guilt of its own. I think that what I love about it IS its retro political incorrectness. If this song came out now, I'd be horrified, but imagining it in the 40's with a couple who wear fedoras and cloches and go dancing is somehow... charming. It's like watching the movie Sixteen Candles. Jake Ryan pretty much offers up his girlfriend's poon to the geek, saying that she's too drunk to know the difference between the two of them. We can only enjoy this because it's in retrospect (although that movie does make me a little squirmy). Maybe the lady-half of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is using a couple persuasion tactics of her own, like a feigned naivete. I mean she is a smoker and drinker, so I think seducer is the natural next step. In that sense, our little snow vixen is quite empowering (yeah, I'm grasping at straws).



I've been on a holiday roll lately. I watched Elf the other day, last night was my family's holiday dinner, and tonight I'm going to my work's holiday party. I work with some awesome people, so I'm very excited and am gonna throw on a fancy dress. Wisconsin is not ignoring the winter spirit either. It's already snowed about 35 inches and, remarkably, I'm not about to stick my head in an oven. We'll see how long that lasts. Cue weather complaints in 3, 2, 1...

Pop Quiz Kid Goes Comic

Wondering what I've been up to this week? No? Well, I'm gonna tell you anyway. This semester, I took a literature class on comic books. The class itself was a little more boring than it sounds, but it had an awesome reading list and it's pretty cool that it's offered at all. For the final paper, we were allowed to make our arguments in comic book form. I put a lot of work into mine (way more than if I had just written it normally), so I thought that I'd post it here! The argument itself might not make sense if you're unfamiliar with the technical aspects of comic books, so you might just want to look at the art. I now have a dowager's hump for sitting over these panels for so long!
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In case you're interested, the books that we read in class were Deogratias, Pride of Baghdad, DMZ: On the Ground, Barefoot Gen, Palestine, Ethel & Ernest, and Maus.

I would recommend all but Barefoot Gen, but that's just because I'm not a manga fan.

Tell me what you think!

Acting with James Franco

James Franco is slowly winning me over. No, not through his supposedly great performance as Harvey Milk's lover in Milk, but through his acting video tutorials on FunnyOrDie.

Acting With James Franco Episode 1: "Sense Memory" by James Franco

Acting with James Franco Episode 2: "Green Screen" by James Franco

Acting with James Franco Episode 3: Scene Work by James Franco

Real post to follow.

Magic frame, pipe wrench guy

Did the title of my last post make sense? I've stared at it for too long and can no longer tell.

Anyhoo, I'm coming out of my finals cave (it's littered with empty emergence-C packages and pieces of my brain from a self-performed lobotomy) to clue you into something amazing that you've all probably heard about months before me. Well, guess what? You're gonna hear about it again.

Ever watch the A-ha video for "Take on Me?" Ever wish they just sang exactly what was happening on screen? Wish granted.