Dorotea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYwzW2QFnwo

Incredible.

This is a re-post from a website that I mod for. I said this in response to all of this "Citizens for our Betterment" crap that Pete Wentz and the band was stirring up just for a record promotion:

 

You know how hard it is for me to bite my tongue right now? I have a serious list of greivances with some of the crap that Pete has been doing with the band lately and I'm not the only one. Judging from similar complaints airing from my DA watchers, this "Mix tape" has left a lot of fans going "OHCRAPNOTANOTHERONEDAMNIT".

I keep hoping in the back of my head that Pete is going to do something really cool that will prove that he's still a little spunky. When all of this C-FOB thing cranked up, I was hoping that there would be some kind of political implications to it. Maybe it was music that coincided with something they were doing, like starting a charity or an organization or just getting involved in a branch of activism.

That's what a lot of my watchers and I were hoping for. And then it gets to this big build-up announced on the day of the DNC, and all of the sudden...it's to announce a fucking mix tape and a new album. In sort terms, we feel like we've been duped. I'm praying to God that the new album doesn't sound like the clip from FNMTV. If it does, then I can only say that I hope Andy moves on to some other project where he can show off his true talent.

Don't get me wrong, I love the band, but I don't like what's happening to them, and I have this sneaking suspicion that Pete's time in LA hasn't really helped. Moving himself and Ashlee back to Chicago would be the best damn thing he could do for himself. Even though I've never been to LA, there's something about that city that turns good people to Shit. It happened to the best of them beforehand, and I don't want history to repeat itself.

I'm a little tired of Pete trying to make people care about him and what his band is doing via carefully-planned marketing strategies disguised as something truely exciting. That makes me feel like I've been conned. You have to understand that I come from a world of bands like SOAD, RATM, and the like. When they tease you, you know something big is coming - hence Axis of Justice. So when Pete teased, I thought "Ooh, this is going to be exciting! I hope it's something politically or socially motivated!". And all it became was a fucking promo for an album.

 

The only thing that I liked about that announcement video was the fact that Andy was wearing a Dead Prez shirt, who are one of the best political Hip-Hop acts out right now. I know that Patrick listens to The Coup and The Roots...why the fuck not collaborate with them instead of some of the questionable collabs they've done recently? Why not cover something outside the box instead of Michael Jackson? I know they have it in them, but I think that fame made them lazy. As I said on PWO, I think that Andy's the only member of the band that halfway has his head out of the sand right now and I hope that he keeps it that way. Hard be it for me to have to put up with him losing his grip, too.

 

 

Sorry, I just had a lot to say. You don't have to agree with me. At least I have the guts to say what I think and feel about it instead of nodding my head and going "This is going to be great because it's FOB and it's new music!!!". That's not how I roll.

Dorotea

 

Yeah, it was pretty angry. Does anyone else hear me on where I'm coming from?

Dorotea

I will get to contest info and news a bit later, but first of all I need to talk about a tragedy - I just learned that one of my friends died.

His name was David, but he was known as "McLovin" to all of his friends. I met him at Hopelessly Hopeful when he was just a noob and everyone's favorite new postwhore. The dude was just fun to have around. He was an obsessive Pete fanboy with a great sense of humor and a great deal of brutal honesty. He used to talk to me about his dreams of being a famous rapper one day and how he never wanted to work in fast food again (he was a vegetarian who could only find work at McDonald's).

Apparently he was murdered around the night of July 23rd. His killer is at large and the crime remains unsolved.

This isn't the first time that I've suffered this kind of loss, either. Two years ago, one of MetChicks' youngest members, Raquel (known to everyone as Rach) was killed in a car wreck. She was only 14. I wasn't close to her, but it still hurt me to see her best friend suffer (she was also a board member).

Please pray for the soul of David and also pray that his killer will be caught and get a life sentence.

R.I.P. David "McLovin" Alderidge of HH. You will be sorely missed

I apparently have been approached by Eliza Cuts to be on her radio show tomorrow because of my Scene Meme. I'm a little nervous but I'm mainly excited! I hope everyone will tune in and listen!!!

Check her profile for more details:

http://elizacuts.buzznet.com/user/

 

How did this happen? Never thought I'd say this, but..thank you Buzznet!

 

Dorotea

I do apologize for:

1. Seeming bigoted or "ignorant". That wasn't the point in my response to the whole "Virgin Whore Complex" blog. I thought I was being fair, but apparently people got their feelings hurt. Obviously I care about women's rights because I myself am a woman, but Modern Feminism kind of makes me wretch. I don't think it's the best approach to looking at relationships between sexes. I'm not "ignorant" for having my own opinion. I had all of the Betty Friedan/Gloria Steinhem stuff crammed down my throat in High School by a Femi-Nazi teacher who did have a bigoted attitude towards men, so I guess that's why I get so angry with a lot of Feminists. I've known to many of them who seem to have it out for every guy and they create their own double-standards like the men they had to "break away" from.

I do feel that there are a lot of Feminists who are bitter, and many of them can't accept the fact that there are some things that guys can do better. However, there are things that women can do better, too. That's not what I meant by my opening statement on the post. I guess that my words just come off wrong to people who don't know me. I keep forgetting that. Sorry.

 

I don't apologize for:

1. How I feel about the whole issue. I hate any kind of steriotyping, whether it's steriotyping men or women. Just today, there was a dude on Myspace who messaged me with something that simply said "show me ur boobs!". Of course I found this offensive. I'm not going to be a dumb bunny and show him anything. I haven't been talked down too much in my life, but there have in instances where people would use that "you're a girl, you can't do this" thing with me. I didn't let it make me angry, I just kept on keeping on. I don't have to scream or march to be "as good as a guy". Most of the time, guys just like me because I AM one of the guys and always have been in a sense. I'm not really girly (the pics I make are mainly for fun), so maybe guys don't feel intimidated around me.

I can tell you one thing though - the Bigoted teacher I had in High School seemed to have it out for me a little because I was so defensive of my guy friends when she would talk down to them for not sharing her extreme Feminist views. I didn't agree with her either. She made it out like men and women were SO different and that all men were this and all women were that. Then she'd do all of these things to make men look like they were oppressive and that women were just "victims". I'm sorry, but I don't buy that horse shit. There have been numerous strong women throughout history who have made a difference, and they didn't "play victim" to a man. Many of them were thankful for men's help. So am I.

"I don't understand why you don't care or want to fight for women's causes!" my teacher would say to me almost like a mother talking to a child.

"Because I don't belive it" I'd answer. I didn't belive what SHE was saying. That doesn't mean I don't believe in women having rights, that means that I don't buy her brand of bullshit.

This is nothing new for me. I was banned from a Message Board once for my feelings on Feminism. I happened to say that there are women who are HAPPY being housewives and that it was their choice to do so, and that women do have a "place" in a household (but so do men). Bitter women came out of the woodwork. Everywhere. It wound up turning into an argumen of epic proportions. They flamed the hell out of me to the point where I was kicked off. The admin let me back on after about three months because these extreme Feminists harassed me to the point where I couldn't even check my inbox without cringing. Some of them followed me around to every message board and social networking site I belonged to, leaving hateful messages and even death wishes. There were people on my side and on their side. It was a flame war that lasted several months.

In the end, one of the flamers actually apologized and we became friends. I found out later that she had been in an abusive relationship for several years and had problems with drugs. She has said most of what she did to me out of anger and also because she was high half the time (her words, not mine). It broke my heart hearing her story, and I can understand why I may have made her mad, but she still attacked me then in a way that wasn't unfair. We put it all behind us and moved on.

 

 

Does anyone get what I'm saying here? There is a lot of gender biases from women to men just like with men to women. I don't like it when one sex it targeted for having more "bias" than the other. I wasn't trying to upset anyone, and I was hoping that someone would understand where I was coming from. Unfortuantly, no one did. Maybe I could have explained myself more in that post and that would have helped. Maybe.

Dorotea

I don't want to re-post the whole shebang here because I'm lazy, but check my DA page for some happy news:

http://codeaires.deviantart.com/



YAYZ.

I'm sitting here bored and feeling sick, so I thought I'd cheer myself (and everyone else) up by posting some of my favorite random images I've seen in 2008 thus far.

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

1.

Taken from http://mehmeturgut.deviantart.com.

I wish I could make photos like that guy.

 

2.

You can call me a teenie; whatever. I love this picture. They're both so cute when they're like this.

 

3.

Zack de la Rocha from Rage Against The Machine at his Senior Prom. And I thought Tom Morello's High School pics were bad.

 

4.

From http://alexiuss.deviantart.com. This is why I love Cloud Pr0n.

 

5.

To quote Antoine Merriweather from  In Living Color, "What a bunch of hot, sweaty mens!"

 

6.

One of the best nights of my life. Too bad you can only see 1/10th of Rachel's face.

 

7.

 

Warm, fuzzy grins are made of this.

 

8.

From India with love. Made by Gilad Benari (http://gilad.deviantart.com)

 

9.

Picture taken by me. http://codeaires.deviantart.com.

Sometimes I can't believe that something like this came out of my camera.

 

10.

Courtesty http://zemotion.deviantart.com.

Jingna Zhang is amazing. We're the same age and yet she's on a level that I'll never reach.

 

Hope you enjoyed this! You have until the rest of the year to impress me! XD

Dorotea

Okay, I'll never mention Andy's name again...
...If the world will stop jumping down my throat.

I'm sorry. Internet rumors get out of hand. I thought I had a solid report, but apparently not. Tell me what really happened and I'll retract my statements.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Seems like I've spent half of my life saying that to somebody.

I'm human. I make mistakes. I only came on Buzznet to have fun. I don't take myself seriously and neither should anyone else.

Dorotea

I just finished this from my DeviantART account. Egad, I think I was on speed or something:

I think I may have given my most epic rant of all time:

This isn't a happy rant nor an angry rant. It's a neutral rant, if that makes any sense.

Well, I had a feeling that my Scene Girl poll was eventually going to seriously piss someone off. I check my messages today and get this:

<blockquote>most of the people who talk shit on the people listed above are either jealous they dont have that type of feedback or wish they could live the lives they lead. if you got to know any of them personally you would know talking shit doesnt do anything but prove to them you're just making them bigger. and as for the lana jade saying rape.

i laugh. you guys are the ones who start the rumors than stone the "scene queens" for them.

get a life. they are having fun.

cept i still dont like twigg.</blockquote>

Heh, here's my opinions:

#1. Most of those people "talking shit" are my watchers and friends, and they have every right to feel the way that they feel. It's not out of jealousy, it's out of disgust for the Scene in general.

#2. There WAS a journal from Lana Jade making those allegations. There's for evidence for it than against it. Believe me, it was hard rummaging through some 100-odd comments on FBR Trash and Buzznet to get a clear picture of what happened. My head still hurts.

#3. "Get a life. They are having fun". Right, I need to "get a life". Maybe the same can be said for Sceenies who make their entire lives all about marketing a fad. Nobody will give a flying rats ass about your "Scene" in ten years. Once people get over the trend, what will some of these girls have to fall back on? Not really much. They'll either go back to their old hairdresser jobs, work at McDonald's, or some other means to make money.

It's also easy to have fun too when you're making shitloads of money off of tweens with low self-esteem. Just ask Pete Wentz. Not trying to sound harsh, I love Pete, but he knows exactly what he's doing and who he's marketing to. He's very business-minded, and he knows that the more mysteriously fucked-up he makes himself seem, the more that girls will care, which means higher album sales and more media exposure. It's an art, and it's all about the subtle tease.

That's probably the saddest thing about Pete that disturbes me more than anything - sometimes I think that he sees the people around him that he loves as products that he can sell to anyone who cares. Would anyone give a shit about Dirty, Hey Chris, Nick Scimeca, Korean Tom Cruise, Jeanae White, or any of Pete's other friends and/or former tag-alongs if he never thrust them out into the spotlight? I highly doubt it. None of them really do much of anything to grant a level of fame like they have received.

Also, I think that's ultimatly the reason why Pete Wentz and Papa Joe Simpson get along so well, despite their obvious differences - they know how to market the hell out of the women around them. Sadly, Ashlee is an item that they know that people will buy. If a father can sell his daughter's music, then a husband can side with a father to sell the personal aspects of their relationship (marriage, children, ect.). Look at what happened with Jessica and Nick Lachey - all marketing and MTV promotion. Maybe Ashlee knows on some level that this is a function she serves, but sadly I think she's kind of clueless to it.

Relating back to Scene Girls - don't believe my logic? Let's try a little train here:

* Start with somebody who's on the rise in the Scene like Dakota Rose. She has noteriety because she's friends with Kiki Cannibal. Kiki Cannibal is famous because she's popular on Buzznet. Buzznet is the mega-conglomerate it is today largely because of the Decaydance/FBR support it receives, which is how it got signed with some of the former social networking geniouses that once managed Myspace.

* Or you can take the "friend chain". Try somebody like Raquel Reed. She is famous largely for her promotion from Audrey Kitching. Audrey Kitching owes a big chunk of fame from dating Brendon Urie. Brendon Urie is famous for being the singer in Panic at the Disco. Panic at the Disco are famous because they were discovered and promoted by Pete Wentz.

It's like a giant ripple effect - and people like Pete realize that. Some people like me are wise enough to see through the tricks and look at what those are aiming for. Pete is a very savvy businessman and knows what he's doing, just like the Scene Queens know what they're doing - it's playing to an audience. At least with Pete, he has enough clout to keep himself afloat long after the trend fades into history, but for some of these girls who are living on looks and who they know...it's back to washing dishes at the Olive Garden.

 

THERE. NOW YOU KNOW EXACTLY HOW I FEEL. HATE ME IF YOU WISH. I REALLY DON'T GIVE A DAMN.

DO YOUR PART TO SAVE THE SCENE AND STOP GOING TO SHOWS.

Dorotea

 

Just for the record - I am a Fall out Boy fan, and yes, I do have friends who are "scene". However, it doesn't stop me from being honest about how I feel about different issues relating to it all. My complete opinions. You don't have to share them.

Trying some model-y type crap...tell me what you think!

 

Dorotea

I had 55 friends on Buzznet as of Wednesday.

I changed my settings to where I would be auto-added to someone's friends list if they added me.

I come back on Saturday and...I have three friends.


WHERE DID THE OTHER 52 GO???


I'm confused on this. Did Buzznet change their settings or something? Thanks to anyone who can help me out!

Looks better, SEE???

F'NMTV: WTF?!
By: Dorotea

Viewers complained about it. Justin Timberlake complained about it. Hell, even Lauren Conrad complained about it. For ages now, people have been consistently whining about the lack of videos on MTV. The "Music Network" has hit an all-time low in video-related programming. This time ten years ago, Jesse Camp was geeking out over Rob Zombie and Ozzy Osbourne during his hosted block of Hard Rock and Metal videos, TRL was actually Live, and non-music programming only popped up during the PM hours. Even then, viewers complained that the station was turning its back on the music industry that made it into a mega-power, but if they knew the kind of horrors that MTV would stoop to in the post-911 Gen Y world, they would have held their tongues and tried to enjoy Laura Lifshitz being spun on a giant wheel during Say What? Karaoke.

In 2008, the average MTV playlist consists of re-runs of shows that no one over the age of sixteen really cares about, four out of five work days bring you pre-recorded "Total Request Live", in which viewer votes are now weighed in with download sales and other statistics. Half-naked skanks like Tila Tequila try to find "love" and nerdy kids turn to Made to have a chance in hell of being popular (and at least while the cameras are still rolling, they achieve that goal). Nowhere in this mix of what the network swears is a reflection of Youth Culture is the music video...until now.

As a Fall Out Boy fan, I was intrigued when Pete Wentz placed a "What do you hate about MTV?" poll on his Meelikey blog (which recently lost its content when the building containing the server caught fire). To no one's surprise, almost everyone unanimously screamed "PLAY MORE FUCKING VIDEOS!". A little bird tells me that Pete had been begging MTV for a show of his own before this poll, so by having his dedicated followers "agree" with him about MTV's pitiful new music resume, his wish could finally be granted. Lo and behold, after returning from his Honeymoon with Ashlee Simpson, he announced that he would be the savior to the music-hungry and apparently YouTube-weary masses - a new show was going to "bring music videos back". Its title? F'NMTV.

I have to admit that I was pretty excited about this. I've followed Pete long enough to know that when he sets his mind to doing something, he'll stop at nothing to get it done. Many dumped money to Invisible Children; Pete actually went to Uganda. Many were broken-hearted at the jeopardy of several local Chicago clubs that showcased Punk and Hardcore; Pete worked his ass off to have them saved. All in all, he has a good track record of keeping his word - so what if he never made it to Antarctica? He helped to save the lives of abducted children in a country that most people haven't even heard of.

Obviously, MTV's programming is a more trivial topic, but with Pete getting involved, it seemed like this "F'NMTV" thing would be worth my time. I remember being hyper with anticipation for Friday night all week, so when the night finally rolled around, I was nearly bursting out of my clothes. Since I like a good debate, I was hoping that my mother would watch it with me. Instead, she swiped my latest issue of Rolling Stone and retreated to her bedroom, almost as if to say "I don't give a flying crap".

I hate saying this, but she really didn't miss much. I was expecting music videos out the ass, but instead I get flashing lights and squealy teengage and twenty-something girls crowded in tight spaces. MTV News reporter Tim Kasch looked amazingly bland as he sat next to a dude whose name escapes me as well as Gym Class Heroes vocalist Travis McCoy. His newly shorn hair, giant coke-bottle glasses and beat-up baseball cap made him look like a pimped-out Urkel, and he played the part to the fullest. None of them looked particularly enthusiastic, but wherever Pete goes, at least some of his posse has to follow (hello, why was Panic at the Disco the live act?!).

After yammering about Pete, they finally did the viewers a favor and introduced the Man of the Hour. He was milking his role as a modern music Messiah to a full extent, touching hands with audience members as he came into the platform. He had his signature Hardcore-Veteran-Meets-Hollywood-Metrosexual style in full force; the kind of "bad boy" scene girls comfortably place posters of on their bedroom walls between their Audrey Kitching shrines and Ashlee Simpson effigies. Despite his fashion flair, his eyes were glassy and dead. His outward pep rally tone couldn't mask his "I got two hours of sleep last night and skipped dinner" aura. Then again, scene girls love that image, so he was likely just playing it up for the cameras.

Now for the actual "daredevil" acts included in the circus. Two-second clips of some truly entertaining videos scrolled on a screen, with Pete's opinions serving as an un-wanted narration ("It's so minimalist" he said about The Replacements). Then came the unnecessary Michael Jackson dick-riding, which induced my first eye-roll of the evening. I have to be fair to Pete, because he was trying to make the clueless crowd care about acts like Blur, The Tom-Toms and The Who, but it was like trying to feed a salad to a Siberian Tiger - you know that they're not going to accept it.

As for the video premiers, bubblegum rapper Flo Rida was up first (you know, that dude who does the extremely annoying earworm "Low"?). The personal story section was touching, especially when Flo Rida spoke of his sister Julia, who died not long ago. The video itself wasn't memorable. It didn't even leave enough of an impression on me to write anything about it.

Then came the oversexed aging felines The Pussycat Dolls, featuring the biggest waste of talent in music today, Nicole Scherzinger. No one wanted her as a solo artist, so her tail went between her shapely, bronzed legs and she went back to PCD and to doing the slutty club anthems that got her noticed. While their latest single "When I Grow Up" isn't as shitty as the songs from their last album, it's still shit. When the video premiered, I thought to myself, "This is a good time to go to the bathroom". Isn't it sad that Scherzinger's best work occurred when she played second fiddle to the now meth-addicted Travis Meeks in Days of the New?

By far, the highlight of the show for me was the live performance of one of my favorite bands, Panic at the Disco. Some say they're over-hyped, but I think that they deserve every bit of praise they get. The band performed "That Green Gentleman", and they sound better live now than they ever have in the past. Brendon's voice is scratchy, smoky, soulful and dripping with new confidence. Ryan's guitar-playing was tight, despite the fact that he seemed to either be tired or stoned out of his mind (or both). While it sounds trivial, the most fun thing about their performance to me was the body language between Ryan and Brendon. While not as raunchy as it used to be, just seeing them steal glances at each other and moving dangerously close to sing the last line of the song together is a slasher's dream come true. "Ryden" as they're nicknamed are much like the Lindsay and Samantha of the Decaydance/FBR family - everyone knows they're doing it, but no one feels motivated enough to pester them out of the closet.

Immediately after the paramount performance, the show quickly moved back into its gimmicky, ADD-riddled format by "breaking" the Indie-kissed Brit dance darlings, the Ting Tings. I wanted to put a gun to my head as I listened to the grating fairy-tale rendition of the band's rise to fame. The poor announcer who had to recite that golden turd had better been paid well for taking it on. The video for The IPod Song (AKA "Shut Up At Let Me Go") was a tired throwback to concepts that J.U.S.T.I.C.E. and The White Stripes already tested (which the panel pointed out). The song is almost beat-for-beat and chord-for-chord a clone of the chorus for Finger Eleven's "Paralyzer" (Or Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out”, except with a bratty Cockney-accented blond chick pitching a fit about a spoiled relationship. Been there, done that. Next.

As I sat in my living room, partially distracting myself with my National Geographic World Atlas, I remember thinking to myself "Well, can it get any worse?". Oh yeah, it got worse. It was nothing short of heartbreak watching one of my favorite rappers, Snoop Dogg, stoop so low to gain relevance. After a dud of a comedy reel where Pete and Ashlee ask Snoop for parenting advice, he appears on stage in a cowboy hat. "I want to pay homage to Johnny Cash. This is a little Western". He says. If Snoop had bothered to actually use Wiki or Google before he brought his Chronic-fueled ass on stage, he'd know that Johnny Cash was an Arkansas boy who did Country, not Western, but hey, the clueless fan girls loved it.

The whole ploy was to build up for his redundant country dabbling. I had heard of his collaboration with Willie Nelson for a while, but something in my head couldn't quite register it. Sure, Jessica Simpson and Jewel hopped on the "ZOMG LET'S DO COUNTRY" bandwagon, but Snoop is not a jiggly blond. When the video dropped, I hid my face and grimaced in embarrassment. I can't believe that Everlast - a truly talented musician in his own right - would actually produce that flaming pile of horse shit. Shot in Amsterdam (gee, I wonder why?), the video is nothing but meandering and "pay attention to us" angle shots. "This is dedicated to Johnny Cash" Snoop yells. This just in: Johnny Cash's ghost is now your official poltergeist. Hope you're happy.

As the fiasco drew to a close, Pete promises a Vampire Weekend premier and a Lil' Wayne performance for next week's show. It sounds like an upgrade, but I'm still not holding my breath. Just watching Snoop perform with Panic on "Gin and Juice" induced a slight headache. Two good artists caving to MTV's attempt to seem in touch is depressing, no matter how much they tried to pretend like they were having fun. I was left feeling like a balloon had just popped. As glossy and well-edited as the entire hour presented itself, it still came off as a giant train wreck. Perhaps the show just needs some time to come into its own. After all, TRL was a mess on its first episode, and it rose to greatness during its Carson Daly years. Then again, as mentioned, TRL used to be live. They had an excuse for looking sloppy and uncomfortable in places.

I feel like a horribly gullible person for even believing the hype in the first place. I mean, it's fucking MTV!!! What was I really expecting? I suppose that part of me was holding onto that hope that it would somewhat resemble what I saw growing up as a kid - daytime filled with music and off-beat VJ's being colorful, and nighttime filled with a less-STD-infested Real World and truly entertaining animated shows like Daria and Celebrity Deathmatch. As I watched two weeks’ worth of promos filled with Pete taunting Hitler's spawns - excuse me, Heidi and Spencer - the sense of humor was a slight throwback to the late '90s MTV spirit. Just like Stalinist-brand Communism, if you place enough signs with enough encouraging phrases for the public to view, eventually you'll start believing what's written on them. Kind of a feeble comparison, since the honchos at MTV don't have nearly enough marbles to be that brilliant with propaganda. If they were, they'd have Karl Rove's old job.

As for Pete Wentz's role in this whole dismal act, I have to commend him a little. He tried his damndest to make lemonade out of this lemon. I'm not writing this to try and tear him to pieces - I admire him in many ways, but I'm not an ass-kisser who gives the thumbs up on everything he does. I have room for constructive criticism, and I think this is one of his missteps. He went in with good intentions, but the network fucked it up, much like the case with Sharon Osbourne's short-lived talk show on Fox a few years back. My mother did manage to walk into the room long enough to stare at Pete and ask this straight-forward question, "Is this the direction he wants to take his career in?". I'm praying to God that it's not. Pete's former struggle to be happy with himself may be gone, but losing that fighting spirit and that activist mindset would be a travesty. While I love Pete for his ability to give the underdog a chance and admire his courage to speak out on touchy political issues, I also despise how willing he is to make himself a brand. He's not Gene Simmons, but he is definitely not Ian MacKaye, either. Then again, Ian did approve of a Minor Threat Hot Sauce, so I suppose this truly is the age of selling out.

Later that night, while I was writing my first draft of this article, I tuned into The Soup to see something truly surprising. Joel McHale's normally snappy one-liners and sarcastic passing remarks were replaced with a bold, straight-up, and actually angry rant towards someone who provoked him. In the four years he's been on that show, I've never seen him lose his cool until that episode. The person who brought this moment about? Audrina Patridge, the "OH NOEZ MAI NEKKID PHOTOZ R ON TEH INTERWEBZ" ditz pretending to be Lauren's bestie on The Hills. Audrina is a direct product of MTV's apathetic attitude towards music, and Pete Wentz is the face of their attempt to clean up their reputation, much like Medvedev following Putin. Of course I doubt that Pete would let Audrina shove her unspoiled maiden hands up his ass and use him as a puppet, but the queasy message still sounds out to the normal consumer. Someone completely talentless and dumber than a doornail can have more clout within a youth-based entertainment empire than a talented musician with more business insider information than MTV could shake a stick at. Who can blame Joel for being pissed at the state of pop culture? I know I feel it.

By the way, Ashlee Simpson's new album is actually very good. But don't take my word for what's worth listening to in music, take MTV's. They're the experts.

Well, I just got around to putting up more photos here. Go look and comment!

I'll have new pics up soon, I'm just busy with other projects now.

My myspace url is http://www.myspace.com/sweetclementine583. Feel free to add me!

If you want to hear me singing and/or watch me do random crap, look at my profile on YouTube:

 

codeaires.youtube.com :D

On my crap. That causes happiness.

Also, be sure to check out my website:

http://sistersofadown.piczo.com

 

All visitors are welcome, and all SOAD fans should join!!!

Dorotea :D