Monday, July 09, 2007

Whoops, I'm a bad blogger.

Ok, so a lot has happened since I last blogged.

First and foremost, I got a new job. (I know, I know. There's nothing on the site. It's "under construction.") I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. I have days where I love it, days where I hate it, and days somewhere in between. It's definitely made me adjust to "real" agency life. That basically means being willing to work constantly and not complain about it. And we all know how good I am at not complaining. I am definitely developing some new skillz though-- the account I work on gives me a lot of client contact, which is great. It's a difficult balancing act. I came from an agency where I had so much freedom and I loved the people I worked with, but I had no chance of getting a promotion within the next five years. This place is higher stress, less freedom, but a much better chance of getting promoted. We'll see. I'm trying to stay optimistic. Things will be ok no matter what happens, right?

In other news, I watched a lot of the Live Earth concerts online this weekend. There were a lot of pointless performances. A lot of people who just wanted to promote their album and/or tour. But thank god the Pussycat Dolls were there to remind us that this was actually about global warming! Nothing says "switch to compact florescent light bulbs" quite like PCD singing "Buttons" and screaming "are you ready to loosen up my buttons?"

In all seriousness, Melissa Etheridge gave what I thought was a very inspired performance. It reminded me a lot of Joan Baez, not that I really know... I'm just guessing that's what Joanie acted like at these kinds of events. If you have time, you can watch her performance below. Yes, it's heavy handed. Yes, it's liberal. Yes, I love it.

Sorry, Allison. You don't have to watch.

Melissa Etheridge "Imagine That" & "Wake Up"
Uploaded by virtualmatter


I know that not everyone will like that. But who doesn't like THIS:




God, that's still a great song.

Also, on Saturday, I saw a great live show. He's a comedian named Kumail Nanjiani. He's a very funny, very talented man. His one man show, "Unpronouncable" is in turns hilarious, heartbreaking and thought provoking. Seriously. It made me realize how much I take everything about my privileged, suburban upbringing for granted. He grew up in Pakistan, where Islam dictates nearly everything about life.

It also made me a little depressed/inspired. There's nothing special about him. He's very smart, and funny and witty-- and he certainly has a story to tell. But there's nothing that makes him special or different from the rest of us. I'm not articulating this well. I guess I've just always felt like people who write books or do comedy or write screenplays are "special" people who got "special breaks." And while there is certainly some truth to that, I believe it was Bill Clinton who said "The harder you work, the luckier you get."

Here's a great clip of Kumail:

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