Why isn't 'Batgirl' a valid career choice?

 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Okay, maybe Dickens is a BIT much for this occasion. But I use that quote for a reason. Because, when I saw Fall Out Boy and Blink-182 on August 14th, it was really a double-edged sword. Blink was returning from an extended hiatus, touring together for the first time in years...read more

After the sudden loss of their friend DJ AM on Friday night, rockers Blink 182 still took to the stage on Saturday in Hartford, CT, for a show on their whirlwind reunion tour.  But during the show, the loss was felt. Read more...

The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards are creeping up on us slowly but surely.  And we've finally got a list of performers, including Taylor Swift, Pink, Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Pink and, making their US television debut, Muse. Read more...

1. I danced tap, ballet and jazz up until about the age of 12.  In high school, I danced every year except senior year in our musical...and even got forced to tap again!

2. While I ended up majoring in English, I originally started applying to schools with the intent of being a theatre major and dreamed of starring on Broadway after college.

3. I briefly was the head of the Pittsburgh meta for A Game of Thrones, a CCG based on the Song of Ice and Fire books by George R.R. Martin.  I also play D&D.  My character in the current campaign is a Tiefling War Wizard who specializes on lighting things on fire.

4. I graduated high school with high honors and was accepted to Pitt's Honors College Program, meaning I could take more challenging classes without taking certain prereqs.

5. I dislocated my left knee while in a Judo match in college.  I have never had surgery on it.

6. I got a varsity band letter for acting as our Marching Band's equipment manager.  I was also briefly on the soccer team, but got thrown off as a freshman.

7. I love sushi and a good seaweed salad.

 


8. When I was younger, I desperately wanted to wear glasses.  I blame Molly: An American Girl.

9. I have never broken anything other than my toes.  That was Judo's fault, too, by the way.

10. I used to play the saxophone, have had a certain amount of vocal training, and have my own band, Girl and Girl 2, yet have not been asked to be on Warped Tour.  As the WWE's Hurricane would say: WHAT UP WIT' DAT?

GOOOOO TEAM BUZZ!

Enter the Bring Yourself contest - Create your own!

Get out your "Free Patrick!" signs, fangirls!  Because Fall Out Boy lead singer Patrick "P-Steazy" Stump landed himself in jail last night. Oh shiz!

Because they clearly do not understand the concept of "average."

Oh, hey kids!  It's little Suzie Scene!  And looks like she's logging into Buzznet again!

Today, like many days, Suzie has logged onto Buzznet and found that people are saying that something she likes isn't good.  Now, last time this happened, she thought she'd settled it by camwhoring, but apparently that didn't work.  So instead, she's decided to comment again.  But this time, she has a trick up her sleeve!  She will politely debate by making sure she tells the other person she respects their opinion!

But then people say she's being disrespectful!  But she SAID she was being respectful!  It's not her fault they don't like what she does and can't see the artistic genius in songs about having sex with underaged girls!!!!!!  And THEN somebody was all mean and asked how the original blogger was supposed to be a cock sucking hor if no "bois" would touch her?  OMG, THIS ISN'T SCHOOL, SHE DOESN'T HAVE TO BE, LIKE, LOGICAL AND SHIT!

And THEN that mean old admin steps in again and decides to tell her that she can't say that sort of stuff!  And it's TOTALLY censorship, just like in the first ammendment!  So she responds:

And that is how Little Suzie Scene ended up getting suspended from Buzznet for three days.  How did she deal with it?

Oh, Little Suzie Scene!  You're so edgy, everybody wants to be your friend!

In conclusion: 

This song will ALWAYS be summer to me.  No Doubt was huge in my high school years and this song came out around the time I was having the summer of my life.  It was the year I learned what an adrenaline junkie I really was/am, it was the year I learned to rock climb and the summer I free climbed to the highest point in PA. 

As I've grown up, put on weight and left behind my rock climbing, the song follows me.  It's such an awesome beat to dance to, perfect for hip shaking and maybe a little pelvic bump-and-grind.

And don't even get me STARTED on how awesome the video is.  I have an extremely clear memory of the first time I saw it: at a now-closed record store in my hometown while out shopping with my dad and brother.

While I missed No Doubt on tour this summer, I'm so glad to see there was such hype and excitement over their reunion tour.  Because there's a lot of bands I jammed to back in the day that kids these days have never even heard of.  It's nice to know that No Doubt has left a legacy of awesome in their wake.

Recently, Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series, commented to MTV about Twilight.  Why?  Because it's MTV, where you have to mention Twilight every 12 seconds or you'll be impaled by a sharp, sparkly implement of some sort. Let me lay this out for you...

So, Fall Out Boy announced to MTV today that, after the end of their tour with Blink-182, they are going on an indefinite hiatus. Ready for it?

So, after my Lady Gaga post yesterday, I have been inspired. 

Don't worry, this does not involve me declaring I shall never wear pants again.

Instead, I am looking to do a project called "The Faces of Feminism."  The idea is simple: I want to get a decent number of Buzznet feminists to fill out a short survey about themselves, their lives and their beliefs along with a picture of their face.  I will combine this into a gallery in order to show that, while we're all occasionally very different, we all share the idea of equality.

If you are interested, leave me a comment in this post.  I will contact you with the short survey within the next week (hopefully) and once you've done that I'll send you info on where to send your picture. 

I want the world, or at least Buzznet, to see that being a feminist knows no age, race, gender, weight, economic status, sexual orientation, genre of music, style of dress, future plans, or any other myriad of things.

It's about equality.

"I'm not a feminist - I, I hail men, I love men. I celebrate American male culture, and beer, and bars and muscle cars..."
-Lady Gaga

Hi there, LG (can I call you LG?).  I'm the New Age Amazon.  I'm glad we could call this little meeting of the minds. Let's have a chat...

(Rant.  Got a bit out of hand and off the original topic.)

For those of you who have ever had a post featured on the Buzznet Music News page, you've probably gotten some kind of spam message about a dating site.  The profile tends to disappear within minutes, because the Buzznet staff jumps on that ish pretty quick.

But I am in a damn bad mood.  And I just got spammed.  Twice.  And I am finally going to explode over this:

I found a great dating site_____Wealthyromance .com______where you have the opportunity dreaming about dating a millionaire and make it true! u dont have to be a millionaire.but u can meet one. I thought everyone needed to meet some miracle after all the terrible stuff in the news and the economy___________________

Okay, first of all:

I found a great dating site: Wealthyromance.com, where you have the opportunity to dream about dating a millionaire and make it come true!  You dont have to be a millionaire, but you can meet one. I thought everyone needed to meet some miracle (I cannot even APPROACH how to fix this because, seriously, you're mashed about three different sentences together here) after all the terrible stuff in the news and the economy.

SECOND:

Okay, fuck you.  Fuck you so hard.  OMG LUL, I KNOW THE ECONOMY IS BAD BUT DON'T WORRY, YOU CAN STILL MARRY A MILLIONAIRE!  BECAUSE THAT'S EASIER THAN ACTUALLY WORKING FOR WHAT YOU WANT.

And that, right there, that last bit?  That is something that has been pissing me off for the past few months.  The idea of working for anything: fame, money, respect, it's regarded as the "hard" way to do something.  You shouldn't have to WORK for it, it should be delivered to your front door, prepped and primed and all wrapped up in a bright red bow. 

There is seriously this attitude, and I see it all over this site as well as others, that by posting to a website and taking "artsy" (read: tilted and poorly framed) pictures of yourself, you DESERVE a modeling deal.  That by writing blogs about how much you hate high school and how your mom wants to ground you for calling her a "bitch," you will have millions of fans flock to you and ask if you're going to start a music career too.  Which you totally ARE, except you don't play any instruments or sing, but hey, why should that stop you?  You want to be a rock star and you were told you could be whatever you wanted when you grew up, so you DESERVE a record contract and publicity and your own clothing line.

SNAP OUT OF IT.

Yes, you can be anything you want when you grow up.  I believe that.  But at some point, we lost the idea of "but you have to work for it."  It is not that you automatically have some right to be a rock star, an actress, a writer, a model.  You have the ability, but you still have to work for it.  Some people will have to work harder than others based on disadvantages or just plain luck.  But there is this bullshit idea of instant gratification: that the most work you should have to put into getting what you want is hitting "post" on your latest photo or blog or, maaaybe, your latest song on Myspace.

And there's a term for this: spoiled fucking rotten.

I went to college to be a writer. I spent four years in classes where I would hand in pieces I thought were mindblowingly good, only to have my classmates and/or professor tell me that they weren't.  Which, by the way, didn't make them "haters."  It made them critics who challenged me to re-examine my work, make it better and, very importantly, to grow a thicker fucking skin.  Being critiqued or having someone say they don't like something you've done or even the WAY you've done something isn't a personal insult and it's not "hating."  And if you look at it that way, you're selling yourself short.  Because stuff like that?  Should be looked at as a learning experience and a new perspective on your work that you might not have considered before.  Your work is not perfect.  If you ever feel like it is perfect, you're wrong.  The true greats are the ones who never for a second look at what they've done and see it pure, perfect and without a single flaw.

I have been out of school since 2005.  It is only in the past year I have started to get paying gigs as a writer, and even those are pretty low key.  But you know what?  I've got some steady stuff going on for me, some of it paying, some of it not so much.  I've got feelers out all over, I'm still learning how to find my voice, how to play with what I want to say and do and how to network and sell myself to get more jobs.  I'm not doing what I necessarily WANT to be doing, I'm not writing what I planned to spend my life writing.  But guess what?  I'm a writer.  And now I'm working on being a better writer, on using my writing to influence and change the world for the better.  I keep searching out new opportunities and approaching them all as "this is the next step."

It is hard work.  It is frustrating as shit sometimes.  It is sometimes difficult for me to look at the big picture and see what I've accomplished.  But it's worth it.  Because I can look back at the path I've taken and see how I've gotten better, smarter, stronger and other words from Daft Punk songs.

And it's far more fulfilling than marrying a fucking millionaire.

One of the first things Matt Reich, the lead singer/guitarist from Lights Resolve, told me was that they are a live band versus a track band.  

He wasn't kidding.

When the New York based three piece, comprised of Matt, drummer Neal Saini and bass guitarist Luke Daniels, did not stop for one second.  From the time they took the stage until the last reverb of their final song had faded they were playing the part of larger than life rock stars well enough that it was hard to believe they were only playing to a room of about two dozen people.

But, according to Matt, the band wouldn't settle for anything less than the best they can be.  He explained that his biggest musical influence is legendary rockers U2 because "they don't settle."  His admiration for their continued development and constant push, even now, to break now ground, has led him and the others to make that one of Lights Resolve's primary goals.  

One of the other big cues the band takes from U2 is a sense of equality among the members.  In fact, Reich explained to me that equality and friendship is what Lights Resolve is based on.  The band formed following the departure of a previous lead singer and the three remaining members were left to re-evaluate what they wanted out of music.  And they have come back, better than before, with Reich taking over lead vocals and pushing himself to improve his already impressive voice.

Matt was no stranger to music, though.  He explained that he got into music originally in the 3rd grade when he and his classmates were instructed to pick an instrument they wanted to learn but also to have a second choice prepared, since odds were they wouldn't get their first.  Matt tried to trick the system, putting down his first choice, trumpet, as his second choice.  However, the plan backfired and Matt wound up the only male in his school band who played clarinet.

But it paid off.  Eventually he wound up as first chair.  And that bit of exposure to playing an instrument lead him to start playing guitar at 12 and then begin singing at 23.  Now 26, he's fronting a band that has opened for Panic! at the Disco, The Used and Straylight Run and is constantly playing other dates in order to get their name out there.

The band will be taking a short break from touring, however, following the remaining dates on their jaunt along the East Coast, ending with a headlining show at New York City's Bowery Ballroom.  Theyll be headed to a house in Florida to write a full length album.  But they don't plan on being off the road too long since they told me they were planning to tour again in October.

The writing break is necessary, though.  According to Matt, the band is so focused on their live show while touring that writing becomes difficult.  But the experiences from the road influence their music, especially the people they run into along the way.  But a lot of their time is spent traveling, listening to ambient music such as Sigor Ros, which Matt said was extremely inspiring, especially while driving through desert areas.  "Looking through the front window, it's inspiring...landscaps and landscape music."  

Well, during the day, at least.  When they need to get pumped up and stay awake, Luke tends to pop in some Taking Back Sunday, as he's a fan.

The band's van, by the way, does NOT have an MP3 player hook up, so they are reliant on CD's.  Meaning, if you want to burn them something they'd appreciate it.  Though they appreciate their fans anyway.  Unlike some bands who might ignore what's being said about them online, or write it off as bs, Lights Resolve does take what they see people saying, both positive and negative, and figure out how they can use the praise and critique to make themselves a better band.  Matt described the fans as "what lets you operate," and summed it all up as "If we didn't listen to our fans, it would be bad."

To that end, the band remains active online at sites like Myspace, PureVolume and Twitter.  They also have a Buzznet, which I have been promised they will be updating (and I hope they realize I will hold them to that), that they signed up for because of a high school friend of Matt's who these days goes by the name of DJ Rossstar.

That's a lot of talk, you might think, but what about the show?  Well, as I already said, U2 is one of the band's biggest influences, so it makes sense that they'd take cues both musically and performancewise from them.  Taking the stage with colored warpaint on their faces, they played like they love what they do.  More of Matt's bottled water ended up shaken over the audience than in his mouth and at one point he stood on the barrier leaning over and getting audience members to sing into the microphone, kissing male and female attendees on the forehead and cheek and shaking sweat over everyone in the first row or so.  His hand gestures were dramatic but natural looking and he occasionally wields his guitar like a weapon.

Okay, now, what about the MUSIC?  Well, the only remotely negative thing I can say is that the music was occasionally a bit repetitive.  But it was hard to notice that through the energy and pure talent of the three men on stage.  And considering the band is headling on limited material, it's not entirely unheard of (see also: Panic at the Disco on the Nothing Rhymes with Circus tour).  No matter what, I was bobbing my head, clapping my hands and having one hell of a good time.  I never found myself bored by the show, which I have had happen with other bands I've covered. 

All in all?  Lights Resolve is well worth going to see if you can catch them.  If you're interested in hearing what they've got to offer, check out their Myspace page and watch out for their new single "Dreaming of Love" which comes out on iTunes on August 11th.  They'll also be shooting a video for "Dreaming of Love" in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled for that!  

Oh, and in closing, Matt would like me to say,

"Don't forget to scrub your behind.  Lights Resolve loves cleanliness."

It seems like something like this happens every time Fall Out Boy puts out a video these days.  They approve an edit, and their label chooses to release another one.  In the case of the video for "I Don't Care," Pete Wentz expressed the band's frustration for the amount of product placement that was edited into the video without the band's consent and was promptly censored for it.  And now, with "What a Catch, Donnie," the problem isn't so much product placement as it is the epic green screen fail at the end of the video. Let's try this one more time, with feeling...

So, we've seen the preview shots, heard behind the scenes stories and waited for what we hoped would be a legen...

...wait for it...

...dary video.  But now the day is finally here: the video for Fall Out Boy's single "What a Catch, Donnie" has hit MTV.com! Let's see it!

The boys from The Cab just don't have much luck when it comes to traveling.  Last February while touring with Cobra Starship, the boys managed to flip their van while traveling through Wisconsin.  They've had assorted other accidents and mishaps since.  But from the looks of things, it sounds like their current van, The Mule, is in serious danger. Read more...