Amanda Bynes, Right?

What do you think of when you hear her name? What words or images?

Opinions of her vary so much. And I think some of us don’t quite give her a chance. We compare her to other celebrities, peg her, label her. And how fair is that?

We don’t have that much information anyway. And what we do have, is hard to read and could mean a number of things. It’s hard to believe stories because we don’t know who’s telling the truth and what things actually happened. How many of these stories are cover ups? How many are true? How many are just for publicity? No matter how you slice it, it’s not fair to her.

She started off a young, bright girl with a pretty smile and a fresh face. Her career was respectable, and her works were funny, relatable, and reasonable. Once she had a firm base, her career started to branch out, and shoot her into a well-rounded star. With Robots, She’s the Man, Hairspray, Easy A and many popular, classic 21^st century films under her belt, and not to mention her own show, it was safe to say that her career was doing very, very well and was granting her a range of an audience. But 2013 presented trouble for the 27 year old.

Amanda had appeared to be plummeting. She started tweeting strange photos, attacking fellow stars, and having “abnormal”, drastic appearance changes, so plummeting could be the right word, although some would say she’s hit rock bottom. But many pieces of this map aren’t present. From a wide view, it appears she drastically went from successful young star, to mental, drug crazed maniac, with nothing to bridge the gap. And doesn’t that seem strange to anyone? What happened? Maybe nothing happened, maybe this is simply a new chapter for her, full of experimenting and possible mistakes and adventures. And what the hell is wrong with that? Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that sort of what your twenties are for? Isn’t this what a mass amount of twenty year olds do? They make mistakes, the get wacky hairstyles and piercings in surprising places. They change their minds and change them again. If you were to compare any twenty something successful star who’s been making out-there choices and a non-famous twenty something with or without a steady job, they’re doing the same thing! Amanda may be making erratic decisions, some with harsh, sometimes legal, consequences, but who cares?

In my personal opinion, leave Amanda Bynes and her fellow colleagues the fuck alone. Let them make their hard and fast decisions. What were you doing in your twenties? Or at any age! Who are you to judge? You’re not any better, and you’re not any less. Que sera, sera.

But I want to know your opinion too. I mean what do you think? Psycho druggie? Or normal adult?

Anyway, Amanda Bynes, you go girl.

xoxo – katy

(Amanda I’m with you on the Team No Old Photos thing and I don’t know if you considered this not an old photo but I promise that once you post a new one I will change it.)

Pet Peeves (Topic of the week)

So, we decided that our theme of the week was pet peeves, and I figured it’d be a fairly easy topic to write about. Clearly, this hasn’t been the case, since it’s 11:16 right now and I still haven’t written a single thing.

I’m not sure where this writer’s block has come from. I mean, I have a multitude of things I could be writing about now. I could write about how much I hate feminist rants and annoying people on Facebook and P!nk and people who think they’re really smart and cool when in reality they aren’t at all. I could write about how disturbing I think it is when people are hypocritical and closed minded and rude for absolutely no reason.

I could write novels about all the little momentary annoyances I have in my life, but I’m not going to. Because they’re not important enough to write a whole entire blog post about. I feel like a lot of what people base their whole entire lives on is just negativity, and I am not a pessimistic human being.

I’m not going to lie and say that I never complain about things, because I do. Sometimes my complaining is very incessant, actually. But it doesn’t consume me, you know? I’ll complain about something, and then I’ll forget about it. I can’t hold a grudge or even allow myself to get too worked up about anything.

So you see my dilemma. I am supposed to write a post here about a pet peeve, but there’s nothing that annoys me enough to take the time and effort to write a long, negative post about. So I’m not going to write anything.

I guess you could say my pet peeve is people who have never ending lists of their pet peeves and are obnoxious about it. You all just need to chill out and go with the flow. The fact that Panera forgot your baguette is not something to be so eternally angry over, and it’s absolutely not something I find pleasure in reading on Facebook.

Life will go on.

Fear the Unlived Life

“The average life expectancy is 67 years. You have 24,455 days to live, dream, and thrive. That’s it. The end. No redo. With that sort of fact residing in your brain, how can you not live your life to the fullest and pursue your dreams and desires? Why do we settle for less? Why do we not try things because we’re scared we’ll fail or be laughed at? What makes leaving passion behind to live a life of repetition and solemness so desirable? I have no idea, and this is the first time I’ve ever been glad to not know something. Life is meant to be experienced. To be felt. To be taken. To be dissected. To be lived. They always said the world is for the taking, and you know, it truly is if you throw yourself out there and actually try and take it. Life comes down to passion at the end of it all, so why act as if it’s childish or impossible if it’s truly your passion? Another question that need not be answered. Live!”

I just read this on another blog of a foreign exchange student I saw on YouTube during some late night exchange student perusing and thought it was so relevant. It speaks for itself.

http://wesballard.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/fear-the-unlived-life/

 Over and out,

Clare Roth

Thank God for Netflix

Yesterday my dad reinstated our Netflix subscription. He had gotten rid of it after claiming “no one used it”. My brother and I had to (camly) try and explain to him that WHAT THE HELL DID HE THINK WE WERE DOING ALL DAY!?!? (sigh) But, now we have got it back. So all is good. Here is a list of my favorite movies that it has to offer. (Keep in mind this is coming from a 15 year old girl, so yes, there will be some chick flicks 🙂 Oh, and by the way, this is also just going to be strictly movies. Tv shows are a completely different story….

1. The Avengers
I’ve just recently noticed that this is on there, but when I did I was so effing excited. This is, in my opinion, the best super-hero movie EVER. So, if you haven’t watched it already, do. It’s fantastic, and looking at Robert Downey Jr. isn’t so hard either 😉

2. LOL
Okay, I’ll admit, at first by judging it solely by the title I thought this movie was going to be, well, stupid. However, after watching it (multiple times) I can say that I really like this movie. It’s your typical teenage-angsty “wahhh, my parents don’t get it at all” sort of thing, but it’s one of the best, of those types of movies, I’ve seen.

3. Pretty in Pink
I think this one’s kind of obvious, but it really is great. I don’t really have much other to say about it other than that I think lots of people would enjoy it, not just girls. Ducky is basically  my favorite person ever 🙂 Now only if they had The Breakfast Club….

4. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
I feel like I’m being really obvious here with all these classic movies, but seriously if you haven’t seen them you definitely should. I think I may have a little bit of a thing for Ferris, too. Anyone else?

5. Safety Not Guaranteed
This movie was recommended to me by a friend and honestly, I didn’t have too high of hopes for it. Then, I saw John Green tweet about how great it is and I watched it immediately after seeing that. It was great, really. I’ve always been a fan of Jake Johnson, too. It has an ending that you wouldn’t expect but is truly wonderful.

6. Mean Girls 2
Hahahaha, who am I kidding? This movie sucks. It’s nothing at all like the classic original.

Stay classy my friends,
Audrey Lamb

Pity Party

I’ve always had bad luck with birthday parties. I was always the one girl at your party who didn’t like something that happened, cried and ran off. And I did the same thing at my own parties. So, people stopped inviting me to theirs.

Ever since, it’s always been a slippery slope. And people aren’t sensitive at all. You think I don’t freaking notice when you talk about your party and invite people to your party right in front of me? Really? That’s rude to anyone in any circumstance.

But I guess now that I think about it, logically, since I’m 15, I’m definitely going to act the same way at a birthday party that I did when I was 7. You’re so so right. Silly me.

No. And I’m tired of being a fucking joke to everyone. Why are people so insensitive and juvenile and oblivious and mean? I mean, I guess it doesn’t matter how some people act seeing as they aren’t very memorable.

Last year I didn’t even have a birthday party. And it doesn’t hurt or bother me or anything really, because it saved me a lot of anxiety and hurt and whatever. That’s so wrong.

You shouldn’t be afraid to throw a freaking party. You shouldn’t worry about every little thing and what it will say about you to other people. Some of it is being a realist, but a lot of it is being afraid, and the result of being scarred by people from the past who were the wrong ones.

And how fair is it that someone has to worry that someone else’s parents forced them to go to that party? Are you kidding me? I don’t know, I just think this is wrong. Is wrong the right word?

I don’t know what it is about birthday parties, but they make me so nervous, and tense, and empty. Sometimes it turns out okay in the end. And while half the time it is people being insensitive and cruel, the other half is me overreacting.

But even my parents have told me not to act a certain way and have cautioned me to not let something bother me or make me “mope” or be absolutely rude. That’s not fair either. I am SIXTEEN.

Are my feelings and frustrations and problems something for you to just throw around and discard? I really can’t have an opinion or pick a side? I can’t feel something or want something or care about something without it being written off as just because of my age? That’s not right either.

Okay so the next time you have a party, or write off someone’s feelings, or make someone feel small, and empty, and worthless, fucking think about how this could potentially scar that person for the rest of their life.

xoxo – katy

11 reasons why I loved Germany

1) People walk everywhere. The towns are small and compact and have really cute cobblestone streets (they aren’t as cute when you’re driving on them [and onto the sidewalks] at 90 mph but whatevs) and it’s just much nicer than driving absolutely everywhere you go. I think this especially appealed to me because I can’t drive yet, so I liked how you could just get up and go wherever you wanted to go, whenever you wanted to.

2) The social scene was so much better. Kids went out every weekend, usually to the disco or house parties. I loved this because, well, I love to go out. And even though I couldn’t go to the disco because I was underage, I still thought that was wicked cool. If I lived in Germany I’d be hittin it up every weekend.

3) The apple juice was fizzy. Since I hated the fizzy water (most Americans will), I had to come up with more creative things to drink (not alcohol, let me remind you, because I am fifteen). So, I drank the fizzy apple juice as my substitute for water and it was absolutely heavenly. I miss it. Mixing Pellegrino and apple juice just isn’t the same as Apfelschorle.

4) They get breaks in school. One fifteen minute one in the morning, and then they get to go home for lunch for an HOUR. An hour! I remember one day, me and my friend Hannah went to someones house in another town to hang out during our lunch break, we had that much time to spare.

5) Everything is pretty. It may not be like this everywhere else in Germany, but I know that in the town I was staying in, everything was just beautiful. Perfectly manicured lawns and windmills in the distance and farmland and lots of fences and trees and ugh it was just so lovely and picturesque everywhere you went.

6) If you wanted to see someone, all you had to do was walk to their house. Oh, and people actually come to your door to pick you up, instead of text you from their car and say “here” or “cum out”, like they do here in America.

7) Everyone dressed nice. There was absolutely no way you’d see anyone in sweatpants, and God forbid you wear a t-shirt to school. All the style among the kids was very hip and fashionable. Lots of skinny jeans, converse, scarves, and cardigans. You could tell that people made an effort to look nice, even the boys. Especially the boys.

8) They ate lots and lots and lots of bread. Always for breakfast and dinner. This could be good or bad, depending on your preference. I love bread, so it was great for me. Everyday I put butter and Gouda cheese on my bakery roll and I was a very happy camper.

9) Sales tax was included in the price! No second guessing if you had enough money to buy something, because the price on it was always exact. This was definitely one of my all time favorite things. And the fact that they had 1 and 2 Euro coins, so if I was paying in change from the bottom of my purse, there was always a good chance that I would stumble upon a 2 Euro coin mixed up with my 1 cent coins, which was always bound to make my day.

10) If you wanted to travel to another country, it only took a few hours by train. Since Europe is so compact, we could’ve traveled to a multitude of other countries and it wouldn’t have costed that much or taken too much time. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to go anywhere else, but it’s still one of the things I loved about Germany, and Europe in general. This will be wonderful when I come back.

11) Speaking German. I loved speaking German, even though I was horrible at it and sounded like a behindert 3rd grader. I loved it when I tried to speak it to my German friends and they would just laugh and laugh at how stupid I sounded. They really did try to help me learn it, though, and I miss saying “Ja” and “Tschüs!”, and trying to decode what they were saying. It was challenging, yeah, but I enjoyed it. I truly felt like I was kind of learning something, and it was the absolute best feeling in the world when they actually understood what I was saying.

These are just a few of the more material things I thought of. There was so much else that I loved, but it would take me forever to list everything out. I truly loved the European culture and can’t wait for my next trip abroad.

 

 

 

Over and out,

Clare Roth

To whom it may concern:

Alright,  how about a little rant?

Some people really just need to use their energy on something other than gossiping. I swear, it’s like all they do is wait around on Twitter to wait for another fight, and then feel the need to share it, play by play, for others. Honestly, I really don’t want to hear about who said what or who cheated on who. It makes my brain feel numb. It’s really an unnecessary thing. I mean, think about all the other things you could be doing besides wasting countless hours mildly entertaining yourself with other people’s problems.

And on another note, please, I beg of you, do NOT PUT YOUR FIGHTS ON FACEBOOK OR TWITTER FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. It may make you a little more ballsy, but it sure as hell won’t give you a better reputation. Do you really want everyone and their mother knowing that, “Oh my god, I can’t believe (guy’s name) cheated on me with that slut (girl’s name)”? I don’t think so.

So do us all a favor and battle it out privately. Or, if you really want to settle things in a civilized manor, could I suggest rock paper scissors? Hmm?

Stay classy my friends,
Audrey Lamb

“Look at, look at, look at me. I’m all the fishes in the sea.”

I recently got Fiona Apple’s new album The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do.

And I really, really enjoy it. I love the sound and the style of the album.

Fiona’s voice is amazing. She has stressed tones and gritty yelling, and it’s strong and scared sounding. It’s very easy to tell how she feels about what she’s singing but it’s still so intricate and elegant.

“Daredevil” is a perfect example of all those descriptors. It’s kind of all of them wrapped up in one.

And I love the way she writes things, her choice of words. The use of “chaperone” in “Daredevil” is jarring in a way but works so well.

Everything is very relatable. There isn’t one song that I feel is too farfetched or silly. I can feel her independence as a woman, and her inner frolicking. The songs are mostly about love, and how her loves have influenced her, but she ties it all back to her, a strong, knowing, stable, yearning, capable, complicated person. And still the opposites of those things are shown too. Which I think makes a great, real, artist.

Of the 10 songs, it’s hard to pick a favorite. But I think my personal favorites are “Every Single Night”, “Left Alone” and “Hot Knife”. I also find “Valentine” and “Jonathan” stuck in my head a lot. Really, though, I love every song. And all together it’s just one perfect story and gets more and more interesting with every listen and makes you feel so much.

On the other hand, where an album is a story and should be tied together somehow, the songs sound pretty similar to each other. Granted she put elements into each song to give them personality and independence and maybe after more time passes I’ll be able to distinguish them apart better, but for now there’s just something there that is too similar. Maybe she meant to do that and it’s part of the air of the album. But I don’t think it takes too much away from it all.

Her lyrics are provocative and poetic and bare. Simple words are woven in with words of depth. The melodies are tense and playful and match perfectly with her forceful, vulnerable, and sometimes distraught voice.

The piano in “Werewolf” and chanting-esque parts of “Every Single Night” and “Periphery” add playful and fun aspects. The staccato verses and monotone, raw shouting in “Regret” creates a rough, gritty, genuine air.

And plus, the title of the whole album is genius and says a lot and I’m a big fan of not naming your album after one of the songs.

Every song has something to offer and has distinct parts that make them hard to choose from and make them all meaningful and raw.

I think that if any album could sum up me or most of my life, this would be the album to do so.

“I like watching you live.”

“How can I ask anyone to love me when all I do is begged to be left alone?”

“We can still support each other, all we gotta do is avoid each other.”

“All that loving must have been lacking something, if I got bored trying to figure you out. You let me down. I don’t even like you anymore at all.”

“And there – you got me – that’s how you got me, you taught me to be mean.”

  

xoxo – katy

Related articles

• “The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and the Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do” (mymusicalmayhem.wordpress.com)
• “Werewolf” by Fiona Apple (artistsbeitmidrash2013.wordpress.com)
• Music Video – Fiona Apple “Every Single Night” (thescenestar.typepad.com)

North West?

I’ve been mentally prepping myself all week for the name announcement of Kim and Kanye’s baby. See, I knew it would be something completely outrageous and narcissistic. Totally saw that coming. All celebrities name their children obnoxious names, right? (Please take a moment of silence to think about poor Blanket Jackson and Pilot Inspektor).

I was expecting something along the lines of “Boi”. Or “Kyd”. Or “Kanye”.

I definitely wasn’t expecting “North West.”

Um. Okay. I’m not sure what the reasoning behind this was, or why it took five days to come up with that, but okay. Clearly they did it for shock value. Why else would you name your child after a cardinal direction? I’ve been puzzled over this all night, and I’ve come up with a few theories.

Maybe it has sentimental value. Let’s say Kim and Kanye love to travel. One night, they were taking a road trip, and the compass was stuck the whole entire time on “northwest”. No matter what direction they took, they were going northwest. They eventually got so lost that they just had to stop and call home. They were stranded overnight, and they had nothing else to do but play around, right? So Kim gets pregnant, and they decide to name the kid after their slutty mishap. In sentiment, of course.

Or maybe, next week everyone in this newfound “family” will disappear, and the only tip given to the public will be that they went northwest. They wanted to give little North some time to chill out in his natural environment without the burden of having to deal with all this publicity. Yeah! Maybe they’ve been planning this for a long time, and it’s just a matter of days now! Maybe all we’ll ever know of Kimye and North West is that they’re residing in some secret place in the North West.

And there’s always the possibility that Kim just really likes the direction “northwest”. Maybe she’s always secretly been passionate about it. Maybe the only reason she got pregnant with Kanye was so that she could name her child after her favorite direction. I mean, we all have strange little obsessions, right? Thank God it was something as simple as a direction. Just imagine if it was explosive diarrhea. Now that would be bad.

In all seriousness, though, I don’t mind the name. I think “North” actually has kind of a nice ring to it, and it’s much better than South, that’s for sure. They clearly did this for shock value, which has been the basis of this whole pregnancy. I wouldn’t have expected anything less from them.

And just imagine how boring and disappointing it would’ve been if they’d just named the kid something like “Keira” or “Kandice”. This is Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. The fact that they even have a baby is ridiculous. They’re just milking all this attention they’re guaranteed to get, and I say more power to them.

This is a free country, people. Kim and Kanye can, and will name their child whatever the hell they want to name it. The kid is not going to get bullied, the kid is going to be worshipped. It’s the child of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West for God’s sake. It’s already trending worldwide on Twitter.

Over and out,

Clare Roth

So la da di da di, we like to party

Miley Cyrus’s new video “We Can’t Stop” has gotten a lot of mixed reviews. Right now on YouTube it has more likes than dislikes. However, most of the comments I’ve seen have been something along the lines of, “What the fuck?”. As strange as it is, I have to say, I kind of like it. It has a very chilled out vibe despite the video being pretty insane.

However, there were two things that didn’t exactly work for me. One, the involvement of brands like Beats and EOS lip balm is sort of ridiculous to me. I mean, come on. Really? It just shouts desperate to me. Desperate for money. I guess she probably needs it though, after being on hiatus for quite a while. Second, the involvement of food kind of made me sick to my stomach. Especially when they were rolling around on the floor with hot dogs and buns. Ew.

BUT, this video was honestly everything I expected from her. She shaved her head and started using words like “dope” all the time so I’m not too surprised by this video as obviously some people are. She’s not Hannah Montana anymore. Or the girl from the last song (what’s her name?).

I remember her tweeting a while back saying something along the lines of, “my new music will shut everyone up”. Now, if that actually worked, I don’t know. It might have just brought out more haters that are still clinging to the brown extensions from the past. I say, just let it go. Go re-watch some old Miley Stewart goodness and move on.

I think this video previewed a good taste of what more to be expecting in the future, and I’m actually looking forward to see what more she has to offer.

Stay classy my friends,
Audrey Lamb