I will be brilliant.

I've been thinking a lot about dreams lately. Not the kind of dreams you fall asleep with, but the kind that drive you crazy while you're awake. I think about the kind of dreams that you dedicate your life to chasing.

Everyone has dreams. Four-year-olds dream of being doctors and firefighters- although our dreams change throughout the years, they never lose their essence. It seems to me that the older some people get, the more apt they become to settling into someone else's dream; whatever happened to hard work and dedication?

I admire people that achieve their dreams. I also believe that dreams die with your body- you work is never complete. I'd rather be 50 years old with 20 dreams in progress than 20 years old with 50 dreams in my wastebin.

My dreams are who I am, my talent is mine forever. So why do people give up on their dreams so early in life? Whatever happened to becoming a star, a designer, the President of the United States?

You can't teach an old dog new tricks, right?

Wrong. You're terribly wrong.

Guilty Pleasures

One of the best parts about being a college student is having access to the library. That's right, I'm a book junkie.
One of the best parts about going to a liberal arts school (that specializes in BFA degrees in dance, musical theatre, and acting) is the fact that the school library has absolutely nothing to do with books. The better part of our school library is taken up by people singing showtunes, rehearsing steps for African Dance class, and preparing monologues— all of which are not quiet activities. Our library would be more well-suited if the bookshelves were removed and pianos were put in their place.

You've all heard me complain about the noise level in the library before, but one of my guiltiest pleasures while trapped in this godforsaken place is snooping around the industrial printer and picking up other people's papers— it keeps me sane. These papers boost my ego; they make me feel incredibly intelligent. The best part about most of these papers is the fact that they don't make any sense at all; did anyone in this school pass the grammar section in third grade? If this is my competition in the real world, I'm bound to be one of the most successful people in history.

A passage from one of the papers I recently read, in all its glory:
"I think that wone of the points the author was really trying really hard to make was the point of being comfortable with oneself in pubic. How cant you walk of the house in the morning without being wholesomely confident in you!!?"

I can't even begin to dissect this. I especially enjoy the part about being comfortable with yourself in pubic.

Kudos to me.

Dandy Design

Lambert's Loss

I caught the very end of the American Music Awards last night, and was completely repulsed by Adam Lambert’s performance. I woke up this morning to a mess of people claiming that his performance perpetuated gay stereotypes and was a setback for the gay community. Lately, we have been under so much scrutiny; the last thing we needed was to see a crazily flamboyant (and self-proclaimed “bisexual”) lunatic grab his pianist’s face and explore it with his tongue.
I understand where these people are coming from, but I think we should feel more offended for the integrity of the music industry. Time and time again, rising artists with raw talent are ignored— it pains me to think of Adam Lambert getting attention because he does a barrel role on stage with a perfectly manicured faux-hawk.
Where is the talent going in the music industry? I don’t know anything about financing an image, but I would think it would be cheaper to invest in someone with a genuine talent who could carry their own weight. The birth of Auto-Tune brought the death of talent. Until we can start recognizing it, I guess we’ll have to settle for stars like Adam Lambert.

Going GaGa

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past two years, you should know (and be completely obsessed with) Lady GaGa. If you've known me for more than two years, you're familiar with the fact that I absolutely could not stand GaGa all throughout her early months. It wasn't until I understood what she was completely about until I started letting her into my life… and boy, am I glad I did! It's like a joke that I'm finally in on, it's like the popular kids have asked me to sit with them at the lunch table.

I went into a meeting with my boss the other day. It was about an hour long— ten minutes consisted of talking about the business; the other 50 were spent gushing over GaGa. She raised an issue that irked me: A tough question to consider:

She recognized that Lady GaGa has an incredible raw talent (which I believe is still completely untapped) and it pains her to see stars like GaGa, Beyonce, and Madonna beginning to pay more attention to their music videos instead of their music. Whether you agree with this blanket statement or not, you have to agree that music videos have become more fierce in the past few years, and our lives are all a bit more glamorous as a result.
I argued that stars like GaGa and Beyonce aren’t just about the music; they are a packaged deal. When I look at GaGa, I love the performance aspect of her. Just like Madonna, I believe that GaGa is more than music; she is a walking piece of art. That's why I personally believe that the music video isn't a lack of focus on her part, but an extension of who she is. Take Madonna for instance: do you think the 'Like a Virgin' tour sold out because people wanted to hear Madonna's voice?

Thoughts?

Diva of the Day!

The Library that Could

As I type this, sitting in the library at school, an interesting thought has come upon me.

I look to my left, and an overweight girl is undressing while boisterously laughing with her friends about how she resembles Grizabella from the musical Cats. I look to my right, and there is a group of dance majors using a radiator for balance as they prepare for a midterm in dance class. I look straight ahead— a group of four giggly girls and one overly outrageous boy discuss the relevance of photos posted to a friends' facebook page.

What do all of these things have in common? It really doesn't matter. What does matter is the fact that I am in the library, and all of these people have a blatant disregard for civility. Where is one supposed to go in order to study if the library is full of people dancing, laughing, and talking on the phone?

I believe that this library is just simply a hidden metaphor for a society that has completely gone to shit. I wonder if things like this happen downtown in the NYU Law Library…