Making Sense of Miley: An analysis of the lyrics to “Party in the USA”

For those who haven’t heard, I’m back in New Haven for the summer, beginning to raise money for my return to Orlando. My time in Orlando was fantastic, and I’m looking forward to returning, but right now, I’m happy to be in New Haven with the family (well, the parents, anyway, as Nick is in New Jersey for the summer and Lizzy only recently returned from doing relief work in Haiti).

For my last month or so in Orlando, I was spending a lot of time with good friends who have questionable different tastes in music, and as a result, I’ve been subjected to the song “Party in the USA” a lot. And I mean a LOT.

Now, I can enjoy a lot of different types of music. I love Bob Dylan, despite the fact that his voice often sounds like gravel caught in a lawnmower. But something about Miley Cyrus’ voice rubs me the wrong way. Sure, she’s not the MOST grating voice in pop music–that dubious honor probably goes to Ke-dollar-ha, although Lady Gaga (when in character and desperately trying to hide the fact that she has actual talent somewhere) gets honorable mention, as does Katy Perry. (And by the way, if I hear “Hot or Cold” one more time I’m going to strangle a walrus.) Still, Miley’s voice isn’t exactly what you could call “pleasant” with a straight face, and I suspect that the Disney Genetic Engeneering Lab programmed her this way as part of a failed viral marketing campaign for a Chip ‘N Dale reboot.

So after hearing it played so many times, I’ve started doing anything to distract myself from the music itself. In a final act of desperation, I tried actually listening to the lyrics, and trying to make sense of them. Continue reading

A silly little “New Moon” cartoon I made out of boredom.

I know, I’m one movie late in releasing this. Bear with me. 😛

I started working on this goofy little project a few weeks before the release of “New Moon” last fall, but due to real-life events, I didn’t finish it before the release of the movie and decided to scrap the project.

Fast-forward to now, and the avalanche of promotional material for “Eclipse”. Even though this cartoon is only tenuously relevant anymore, I decided to finish it and throw it online anyway. The particular entry in the series may be out of date, but the theme of guys being sick of Twilight is eternal.

Growing Up With Children’s Playthings: The Obligatory Toy Story 3 Review

I can’t be sure yet, but the Back to the Future series may have just been dethroned as my favorite cinematic trilogy.

The new candidate has some similar circumstances. Like Robert Zemeckis in 1985, the Pixar gang were relative unknowns when they released Toy Story in 1995 and changed the face of family entertainment. Like Universal with Back to the Future, Disney demanded Toy Story sequels. In both cases, a trilogy was never part of the original plan. And in both cases, now that I’ve seen all three movies, I can’t imagine watching just one without the other two to complement them. In both cases, the three films really come together to make a complete experience. Continue reading