It has been a great year for music, n’est-ce pas? As always, I’ve compiled a list of my favorite albums released this year. I’m not claiming they are the best (yes, I am), just what my favorites are. Clearly, female pop singer-songwriter types with a penchant for glitter and drama ruled my world this year. You’ll notice a lack of indie bands that have been in my lists in years past. This is because I decided 2009 was the year I stopped letting Pitchfork tell me what was “good.” (Some would argue I let Popjustice tell me instead, but that’s fine. It’s probably true.) After the jump I get a little more specific.
Hey guess what, I’m in a book! It’s called We Feel Fine, and it’s in bookstores starting today. Clicking the picture above (of the page I am featured on) will take you to the Amazon page where you can order it. I went to Barnes & Noble today to get the book and was completely thrilled. It is a really, really cool project that was executed beautifully. Check out the website for more information about the project and its mission.
I really hope the efforts of everyone who helped organize the march and rallies in Washington DC this weekend pay off. I wasn’t able to make it down there due to personal commitments, but I did follow the events very closely online (perks of the 21st Century). It’s easy for me to be pessimistic, but I’m going to try to be optimistic. The photos and videos are all very inspiring – now we just need to keep the momentum going. This is a very exciting time for LGBT rights. The increase in political activism over the past year, especially among my generation, has been incredibly empowering. I know it feels like this has been going on forever, but it’s really just the beginning. Buckle up for a long trip, kids.
I meant to post this a week ago, but here we are. My family came up to New York for my birthday this year and knocked it out of the park. It was the best birthday I’ve ever had, and I don’t know how it’ll ever be topped. That is all.
On July 13th I renewed my subscription (is it called a subscription?) for this blog for another year. It was actually a decision that required some thought. Nine months ago it would have been a no-brainer, but at this point I actually had to think about it. The number of posts per month that I’ve been writing has dwindled significantly in the past months. I mean, we’re almost at the end of the month, and the last time I posted something was on the 4th. I ultimately decided to renew my subscription because I do like to have lolsam.com here when I need it. I haven’t needed it that much in recent months, though, because, as Tracie Egan said, “the real reason that I haven’t been writing here is because I’ve been happy.”
While I know that many of my peers are having quarter-life crises and feeling depressed and helpless and hopeless and just less, I’m not. Because of that, I don’t feel the need to come to my Wordpress Dashboard to draft a post about feeling lonely in my single-ness, or having bad friends, or the latest anti-gay outrage (all favorite topics of the past). I don’t know. Maybe I’m outgrowing this blog. I started it to fulfill a void, which was the emptiness of my life after hitting rock bottom in almost every way and failing out of college. Though that was only two years ago, I feel like I’ve aged a hundred years since then, and that void is no longer present. It is filled up with so many good things, and I’m having a hard time adapting (or even caring about adapting) this blog to a new purpose. It was basically a time-filler, and the time is currently filled.
In a week I’ll turn 21-years-old. My family is coming up to New York from Maryland to celebrate with me, and I’m absolutely beside myself with excitement. When I turned 18 I was an utter mess, though, sadly, nothing compared to the mess I would be by the time I turned 19. For me, turning 21 is not the milestone of alcohol legality that it is for so many other people. Rather it is a celebration of my stability and altogether “togetherness” as I enter adulthood. I don’t think I can overstate how much of an accomplishment that simple idea is for me, but it gets easier with each passing day. Twenty-one is only the beginning, I guess.
Bee-tee-dubs, I’m not completely absent from the Internet (cf: diet lolsam).
Right now, at this very moment, my biggest problem is that I do not already own the entire Lanvin Spring/Summer 2010 Men’s collection.
Oh, what a problem to have. It’s been a while since I didn’t have a hundred problems weighing on me, and I quite like it. I realize that I create most of my own problems, like most people do, and right now I’ve gotten into the habit of not creating problems. It’s quite nice. That’s all I have to say about it. My thoughts are becoming more and more succinct.
So, over the weekend will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas confronted blogger Perez Hilton at a party for writing disparaging comments about the former’s band on his website. In retaliation, the blogger called will.i.am a horribly offensive gay slur. A gay slur! From an alleged gay activist! Hilton justified using the hateful words by saying he wanted to call will.i.am “the worst possible thing that thug would ever want to hear.” Cute. Then will.i.am had his bodyguard beat the shit out of Perez Hilton, so, basically good decisions were being made by all. Gawker has a better recap of what happened, but those are essentially the Cliffs Notes.
It absolutely appalls me that Perez Hilton would use such hateful words when he knows first-hand how hateful they are – and he was using them in a very hateful way. Plus, he’s tried to become the face of the gay rights movement, and here he is spewing hate speech against his own people? I mean, what kind of moron does that? And I don’t want to say he got what he deserved because I don’t think violence is ever an appropriate response to anything, but when you use violent words, it is sometimes fitting that you get a violent response. I’m not sure I’m making my point as clearly as I want to, but I don’t have time for nuance right now.
GLAAD seems to agree with me because they’ve demanded an apology from Hilton. Below is the press release via Gawker.
First he betrayed Dustin Lance Black with those X-rated pictures, and now this? I don’t know what’s next from this clown. It’s really amazing when gay people contribute to homophobia. It really advances the cause.
Update: I just watched this video of the actual altercation, and Perez Hilton actually said worse things than he claimed to have said in the vlog on his website. I feel such anger toward him right now. I’ve never really felt he was a good person to have as a visible “gay activist,” but this is just beyond ridiculous. He needs to be forcibly removed from the public eye.
Yes, dumbasses, using “gay” as a synonym for “lame” or “uncool” is incredibly offensive. And just because “everyone in Jersey says it” as a “figure of speech” doesn’t make it okay. And I don’t think Danielle was just trying to stir up drama, at least not in this situation. I think she was really trying to stick up for gay people. This is the kind of thing that makes me angry. Just because you don’t get along with the only person to call you on your bullshit doesn’t mean that your husband isn’t a dimwitted contribution to the larger problem of homophobia in this country, Teresa.
