PERSPECTIVES

This right here brings into perspective how small we are as human, and how much technology, globalization, and everything in between affects us.

Its kinda F-ed up.

NOT ALWAYS RIGHT

Unless you've ever worked in a retail environment, or any environment having to do with customer service, you won't relate to it.

Actually, you might. People are pretty dumb.

Check it. 

ON ROMEO

If you look up 'Romeo' in the dictionary, they're won't be a picture of Leonard Whiting there. But you'll get the origin, and you'll get some other nifty stuff too. Romeo: 1 - The hero of Shakespeare's romatic tragedy Romeo and Juliet. 2 - A code word representing the letter R, used in radio communication. 3 - An attractive, passionate male seducer or lover.

Something here seams wrong to me. The first I can account for as being completely true, as a student of English Literature and a lover in general of all things Shakespearean. The second I have no idea about. But the third? When did Romeo become cognates with the words ladies man, womanizer, playboy, babe magnet, stud? Is that you, fair Romeo?

Now, if you read Romeo and Juliet, it is mentioned briefly an ity-bity part about someone named Rosaline. For those of you who don't speak old english, I'll translate it for you.

- You look like you've been up all night.

- I was 

- Were you courting (for lack of a better word) Rosaline?

- Rosaline?! How could I be with Rosaline when I've fallen in love with the best gal around. We're getting hitched, Julie and I. 

And this is the point in which he starts telling the father about how he has fallen in love with Juliet, and how he would like to marry her. In fact he asks the father to MARRY them that afternoon. If he were a - just like Britney's sayin bouts K-Fed - womanizer, he would not be so keen on marrying here.

Okay, so it blows for Rosaline who may or may not have had her little heart broken. But we need to look at the bigger picture here. 

If Romeo was such a playboy or a ladies man, we would have the feeling that he had a million other girls he liked before Juliet and before Rosaline. Women would have been fawning over him at the party in which he fell for Juliet, which is not the case. He is portrayed as a very awkward youth standing around and waiting for something - ANYTHING to happen. Further more when fair Tybalt is annoying Lord Capulet about the removal of Romeo, Lord C even states that Romeo is a 'virtuous youth' and he would not 'for all my wealth remove him from this house'. Now, would those words be reserved for Casanova? 

I know this isn't super scholarly because I don't really have all my sources with me at the moment, but I think I would actually like to do some hardcore scholarly writing on this. I wanna know why Romeo now means heartthrob, and why so many people seem to have forgotten about who Romeo really was (you know, half of the whole star-crossed lover thing). 

I'd also like to know if the people who really think Romeo was the seducer he was actually read Romeo and Juliet? 

The english language and the stupidity of the masses piss me off. Someone as talented as Shakespeare and something as beautiful as Romeo and Juliet only comes across once in a language. Can we just not fuck up that beauty and stand back to appreciate it? 

BAHAHHAHAHAHA

WTF?

There is a secret war you guys might not know about, and it is between PETA and everyone who consumes meat. Specifically KFC.

The Colonel is rolling over in his deep-fried grave right about now. 

According to NYTimes, KFC offered a handfull of cash to fill some potholes for the good ol' State of Kentucky, on the condition that those potholes read "Re-Freshed by KFC" in non-permanent street chalk. Lets just hope for a rain, folks.

If the story wasn't weird enough, PETA has offered double the money then KFC to do the exact

same thing, as long as the advertising reads "KFC Tortures Animals" with a link to their website kentuckfriedcruelty.com and a lovely picture of our well known Colonel sporting a fine pair of devil horns. But the mayor of Louisville, after whole heartedly munching on a bucket of clucks and fanning himself with the money donated by KFC, turned down PETA's offer. The reasoning being that KFC has long been a staple of Louisville, Kentucky's history. Personally, if I was the mayor of a city, I'd rather have PETA be a staple of my towns history then a fast food chain of finger-licken-fried-chicken. 

Sad thing here, is that I checked out the website. And now I don't think I'll be going to KFC anymore. I am by no means a vegetarian, but the least I can know when I look down at my roast (or in this case my breaded chicken) is that its been killed nicely. 

On a side note: KFC has given to the same offer to a number of other American Cities. No word yet on if PETA's gonna be doing the same.

But PETA, I want to know if I eat the biscuits and mashed potatoes, am I still a bad person?

I'M IN LOVE

This is a story within a story within a story within a blog post. Stay with me here folks. 

Today on my tram ride home from school, a man came on with what appeared to be a large accordion. Automatically, he had my attention. And then when he started playing stereotypical French Accordion music, my hear just about melted from how freakin' picturesque it was. I'm living in France, and here is a Frenchman playing French Accordion music on my tram. Why-oh-why wasn't I sipping coffee at the Eiffel Tower with someone named Pierre?

Probably because the only guy I've met named Pierre had no interesting qualities besides being named Pierre.

Never the less - inspired by this, I came home flipped on the Amélie soundtrack and started searching for some more accordion music. Specifically, some more awesome Yann Tierson stuff. At this point my friends I happened to stumble across the man I want to marry. 

Okay, so when I say I want to marry him, I don't actually mean I am going to go out and 

find where he lives and become his bff just to get into his pants (although if the opportunity to get into his pants were to arise (heh heh) I wouldn't turn it down). I'm just in love with this guy because hands down he is purely talented and has never made the accordion look so good. He name is Dave Thomas, he's from the UK, and he plays the piano and the accordion. Now there are three particular reasons why I am hardcore in love with this kid. They are as follows:

1 - Who can play the accordion looking that fucking sexy?

2 - He apparently plays all of his music by ear. 

3 - Pure unadulterated mother-fucking talent. No joke.

I'm not completely sure of his story, but he's a big fan of Yann Tierson, and has some of his own awesome stuff on his youtube page. He also did some music for the New York Fashion week, which I've heard and is pretty awesome.

Now Dave Thomas has three sites you need to check out, because he's trying to get his name out there. I fully support this, and thus am giving them to you: Check out his Youtube, Myspace, and personal website. 

I am not a fan of paying for music, but I actually shelled out the how-ever-many-dollars-pounds-convert-to so I could get my hands on this stuff. Seriously kids, thats gotta mean something to you.

That being said, why don't more people play the accordion? I personally have an estranged uncle who plays, but he's kind of a weirdo and is deeply in love with polka music (no lie, I couldn't make that shit up). However I find the lovely French-style accordion (RE: Yann Tierson and Dave Thomas) to be particularly beautiful. In fact, I now have decided it is my destiny to marry a skinny man who plays accordion (now, this is not just because I am in awe of Dave Thomas, I happen to love skinny boys and the accordion - I see no downside here). Or maybe I should make it my personal goal to play the accordion too, although there is no way in hell I'll look as cool as the aforementioned prodigy. 

I hope you all enjoyed this issue of Accordion News (oh yes, I will be blogging on this a little more) and I will end this session with Dave Thomas' "Waking Dream".

Enjoy.

CAN I BE HIM WHEN I GROW UP?

So I have this new fascination with youtube, which comes from going to school in a foreign country and not being able to work here. As I have said one thousand times, I am so bored. But thats okay, because spanning from that is entertainment (both yours and mine).

I don't remember how I found out about Shane Dawson, but he has to be my new favorite guy on this planet. He's a celebrated youtube star and everyone of his videos I am pretty much in love with. I find myself quoting them every once in a while (to the dismay of everyone who knows me).

But the reason I love Shane Dawson is because I feel like deep down we can all relate to him. We've all got a little bit of Shananay inside of us, just trying to break out.

Here's his latest awesome video: