CherryTeresa - my life. my opinions. other random nonsense.

The "Beat It" Shirt

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:48:19 GMT

I have wanted this shirt since as long as I can remember. I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. I saw the "Beat It" video repeatedly as a young child. Since I was already taking piano lessons at that time, when I saw Michael Jackson's shirt, I wanted one so much. And now I can have my own.

Now, which size do I order? What if I order the wrong size? Ahh, the blessing and curse of internet clothes shopping.

Here is Michael in the shirt:

Look: Even Weird Al had a similar one in the "Eat It" video:

Wait a minute. If you look at the keyboard divider image that divides each blog entry here on my journal, it looks kind of similar to the shirt. I made the logo myself and didn't even think about the MJ shirt. Perhaps it was embedded in my subconscious? Haha.

My favorite lesser-remembered MJ videos

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:41:40 GMT

Choosing a favorite Michael Jackson song is about as hard as having to choose a favorite song of all-time. Here are two of my favorite MJ videos that no longer get as much attention as, say, "Thriller".

Notice the fake newspaper headline in "Leave Me Alone" that appears:

MJ albums already back in the top-sellers lists

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:16:58 GMT

It doesn't surprise me at all that the Top Albums section on iTunes is filled with Michael Jackson albums already. Even Invincible (which, by the way, I thought was a great album) is at #21. "Thriller" helped bring the music industry out of a large sales funk when it was released. (Don't believe me? Read this. Michael comes in on page 8). Maybe Jackson's music will do it again posthumously.

"why "

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:42:24 GMT

Writer's Block: You're a Winner!

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:16:22 GMT

Have you ever won a contest, drawing, or lottery? What was the prize?

View other answers

In the first grade, there was a school carnival during the weekend and I won $200 in a raffle.

In the summer of 1999, I was in a clothing store in the Atlanta, Georgia area. There was a drawing to win an iMac. A couple months later when I was back in Baltimore, I found out that I had one a blueberry iMac! This actually altered my life a lot. For one, I wasn't that interested in computers before this. Sure, I was one of the first people at my school to start using the internet in 1994 when it was still uncommon. But I didn't care much about the programs on the computer or anything other than just signing onto AOL. I found that even using basic, common applications was a huge headache and I just didn't really "get" computers, how they worked, why they behaved in a certain way, and why they kept crashing, haha! Getting an Apple computer changed all that. I found out I was just not into Windows but I immediately took a liking to my iMac and the Mac OS (which was OS 8 at the time). I started using programs on there and learned a lot about computers and eventually ended up taking classes in college in Interactive and Graphic Design. I am now majoring in Information Technology at school. I use my computer for many different reasons now, including recording my music. Being comfortable with this technology has changed me personally and professionally. Having a better grasp at the Mac OS helped me to eventually become better at understanding Windows as well. I still need to become familiar with Linux but that will happen in the not-too-distant future as I have to take a course in school on this anyway.

It just goes to show you that little things can alter your life. If I had decided to not enter that contest or not even go to that store at all, I would not have won the computer and who knows what I would be majoring in at school right now, if anything.

Twitter takes away from my blogs

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:54:38 GMT

I have a lack of updates lately and part of that is because of being busy and a part of that is due to Twitter. My desire to create well-written, thought out entries has been replaced by trying to create cleverly-written 140 word or less messages. I need to get back into writing more in-depth posts. Just trying to think of what to write for this blog is harder than it would have been a few months ago. Twitter has helped me being more effective at communicating what I want to say in a condensed form but I also need to make sure I don't lose my writing capabilities and my ability to explain something in-depth.

Vacuuming

Mon, 25 May 2009 21:23:38 GMT

Vacuuming just makes me aware of how much hair I shed.

B4-4 "Get Down" Video. WTH?

Sat, 23 May 2009 20:28:30 GMT

I like cheesy pop music but this is ridiculous. This video is so bad that it turned good, but then went back to bad again. And I'm not talking about bad meaning good, but bad meaning baaad.

Texas Rape Victims Billed

Sun, 10 May 2009 05:31:50 GMT

This is RIDICULOUS. It's hard to get many women to get help in the first place and this certainly isn't going to make it any easier.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/09/texas-charging-rape-victi_n_201190.html

Madonna "Open Your Heart"

Fri, 01 May 2009 22:35:47 GMT

Remember that boy from the Madonna "Open Your Heart" video? His name is Felix Howard. Here's what became of him - http://ow.ly/4Lg9

The State will finally be released on DVD

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:56:07 GMT

http://thestate.mtv.com

July 14, 2009. I am so buying it. Of course, it was supposed to have been released before and it wasn't, so I won't totally believe it until I see it. But it's actually on MTV's website, so I have a good feeling about this.

The Faint/Ladytron

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:42:30 GMT

I saw The Faint and Ladytron tonight at Sonar. Such a great show!

Trip to NYC a few weeks ago

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:26:13 GMT

I went to New York City with mandimercedes February 27-March 1. It was a spontaneous weekend getaway. I had been annoyed, bored, and stressed with some situations here in Baltimore. I was on the verge of going off on people. I’m glad we went because I came back feeling a lot better and even right now I feel a lot better because of it.

The reason we ended up going at the last minute was because I heard the weather would be nice, I had less homework than usual, and I had been wanting to visit anyway. That Friday was a gorgeous day outside and the weather forecast was great for the rest of the weekend. I checked the weather in NY and it was supposed to be nice there as well. I texted Mandi saying that I was in the mood to go to NY and she was just like “if you’re serious, let’s go”. So we decided to go, just like that, haha.

I booked a hotel on my lunch break and we were lucky enough to get a room at the Hilton Garden Inn in Times Square for $99 per night, thanks to Mandi’s mad skills at finding good hotel deals online.

To my lj friends: Sorry I couldn't put this under a cut. I tried and I tried but LJ kept re-formatting it totally wrong and deleting content, even when I clicked "Disable Auto-Formatting".

Friday Night

We didn’t leave her house until after 9pm. I worked all day and had to pack and shower. So by the time we got to Manhattan, checked in, and got ready, we didn’t end up going out until after 2am. But no worries – clubs are open there much later than in Baltimore. We got in our room and practically jumped up and down with joy because of how nice the room was and what a great view of the city we had. We were on the 15th floor, which was the top floor. (It was technically floor 14, since there was no 13th floor).

Entering Manhattan:

The view from our hotel room:

The first night, we hung out in Manhattan. We stopped by Angels & Kings first but not much was going on there by the time we had arrived. We walked down a few blocks to Webster Hall and hit up the dance party Trash. It was fun times! It reminded me a lot of Taxlo at Sonar here in Baltimore, but back a few years ago when it was at its peak. There was also some sort of mini-burlesque show mixed in between DJ sets. We easily met a few people there, as folks were just friendly and started making conversation with us.

We ended up both on NickyDigital.com and DrivenByBoredom.com. Here are the pics:

We knew that the bars stopped serving at 4am so we just assumed the club would close at 4 (or 20-30 mins before that, as they usually kick everyone out in Baltimore about 1:30 or 1:40, even though the bars have until 2am). They served right up until 4am and to my surprise, the club was still open after that. Trash closed a little before 5am and the dance party that was upstairs was still kickin’ when we left. And guess what? They don’t come up to you and yell and scream in your face to get out. I don’t know if this is how all venues in NYC are, but this was a welcome change from Baltimore. I sort of understand why they do it here, but it’s still nice to be a patron and not be treated like crap.

We stepped outside and met even more people in front of Webster Hall. People were asking what else was going on and if we knew where the after party was. Mandi said to someone, “After party? It’s so late.” This guy replied, “It’s only 5am, what are you talking about?” Haha, I love it. What I also liked was that the food comes to you. I knew there were stands all through Manhattan that serve hot food but I just assumed it was mostly stuff I would never eat and I also didn’t realize that they would be there that late at night. That area had a falafel stand. I want to hit that up another time. We ended up going to Ray’s Pizza with some people we met. After we got there, I realized that I had eaten there the night I/Skitzo Calypso played CB’s a few years ago.

As we were walking to the metro station, we saw two crust punks who were at Ray’s and they were in physical fights with two non-punk dudes. The punks were losing. The other non-punk dude left after beating on a guy. But the other non-punk guy – who was this really short, but buff dude – stayed and was beating up the punks. More punks came, but somehow the one dude was winning against all of them. Don’t ask me how, but it’s true. He was maybe 4’ 4” but he was muscular and tough (and I think probably a bit crazy). Then he took his shirt and his belt off and came after them with his belt swinging. It was crazy! Cops finally drove by and saw what was happening, so they stopped. The punks were yelling, “Help, he’s beating us up!” and we snickered to ourselves, “Yeah, like they’re really going to believe that, even though it’s true – one little dude beating up that whole group”. But the cops instantly believed them, haha. Angry NYC cops yelling at him = loved it! Police officers don’t mess around there. At this point, we decided to leave because the reason we stayed was to make sure that no one got seriously hurt.

Here's a picture Mandi took of the incident:

We were walking back to our hotel in Times Square at 6:30am and people were still coming up to us and making conversation. Some crazy, old dude with a Slipknot shirt tried to get our attention but we kept walking. Not everyone out at that time was weird, though. We met some kind of cute dudes from the Bronx. They walked us to our hotel. And then Mandi and I hit the hay around 8am.

View from our hotel room at around 7am:

Saturday

We got up in the afternoon, but were awaken in the morning. We had a “Do Not Disturb” sign so that the maids wouldn’t come in our room to clean. The front desk called us anyway, asking if we wanted them to clean our room. They actually called two or three more times through the day and night to ask if everything was okay and if we needed anything. Mandi answered and told them, “We’re fine, just stop calling! This is the fourth time today!” and the guy said, “Oh, Golly Gee! I’m so sorry. It must be a computer error.” Oh, Golly Gee? Haha. Is this why South Park was making fun of the airport Hilton in the episode where Cartman has the Ginger Power meeting? Employee: (Interrupting the meeting) Welcome to the Airport Hilton. Do you need anything else? Cartman: Yes, we’re fine. Now leave us alone! I guess if we stay there again, we’ll have to tell them specifically that we sleep late and not to call; and if we need anything – don’t call us, we’ll call you. It was otherwise a good hotel and we enjoyed our stay. The employees were really friendly and helpful.

We spent the afternoon being lazy, which was fantastic, lol. We lounged around, watching cable and local programs on the widescreen HD TV. We had Japanese food delivered to our hotel room, including some of the best sushi I had ever eaten. I love that you can get just about anything delivered in that city. I don’t think sushi delivery exists in Baltimore, except for catering (which doesn’t count).

That night was spent in Manhattan again. A bunch of cool things were taking place on Saturday and Mandi had a few friends in bands that were all playing shows that same night. We decided to hit up Arlene’s Grocery in the Lower East Side because Acey Slade was playing. But we had just missed the band by the time we got there because we didn’t realize the show started early and there were several other bands playing. That’s what we get for not planning anything. The place was packed. There was a room where you could hang out and drink and another where the bands were playing. We stayed in the hang out room and they were playing classic punk music, which was cool. (If you say “classic punk music” in Baltimore, people think you mean Blink-182. What I mean is they were playing music from the bands that were mostly from that same neighborhood we were in and from the late 70s). Mandi introduced me to the band. We hung out there for a couple hours and chatted with Acey for a while. Then we headed down to 30 Rock (30 Rockefeller/The GE Building/NBC Studios) in Times Square to catch the SNL cast and writers walking out. You can read about that and see pictures here. This was the night Justin Timberlake did the Cathy skit, but we didn’t see him.

Oh, look at all those fans waiting to meet me. (Psych!)

Sunday

Check out time was 11:00am, which was basically 10 o’clock because that was the first day of Daylight Savings. We met up with someone we met at Trash. We first went to the Corner Bistro restaurant, which was somewhere between the West Village and the Meat Packing District. I had the delicious chicken burger with a couple Blue Moon beers.

Here's a picture I took in the Women's bathroom, haha. This was beneath the sink:

Then we went to Brooklyn. As soon as we got off the subway and walked up the stairs into Brooklyn, the first thing I noticed was how quiet it was. The noise in Manhattan didn’t bother me at all, but after being there since Friday night, I couldn’t help but notice the difference immediately. We walked up and down the Brooklyn Promenade. It was a gorgeous day outside and the view was fantastic. We ate at some ice cream shoppe on the river. I can’t remember its name but the ice cream was yummy and all natural. We saw a beautiful bride and groom and their guest, who were either Japanese or Japanese-American, getting their pictures taken in front of the river.

Mandi and I on the Brooklyn Promenade:

We went back to Times Square and went into some stores. I bought a knock-off purse from a random stand there. I finally found a purse that works for me. :) I don’t care about people thinking I have an expensive purse, but those designers and the knock-offs are the only hand bags that have all the compartments and space that I need. We headed back to Mandi’s car and started to leave around 6:30pm. Our hotel was just a few blocks into the city after getting off the highway. But it took us an hour and a half just to get past the tunnel. We got back to Mandi’s around 11 and I got back to my place around 11:30. I was tired, but it was totally worth it.

My geeky experience meeting the SNL cast

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:39:49 GMT

It was just announced today that Andy Samberg will be hosting the MTV Movie Awards. I pretty much assumed this was going to happen. I think it's awesome that he's come full-circle because he was a writer on the awards show before he was on SNL. This will be the first time I see the MTV Movie Awards since the 1990s. I watched bits and pieces when Jimmy Fallon hosted since I like him but MTV has really lost my interest. Anyway...

I met Andy Samberg the weekend before the one that just passed. I was kind of drunk, haha. My BFF

mandimercedes and I were in town for the weekend to hang out. (I will explain more about the weekend in an upcoming post). We went to the Acey Slade show at Arlene's Grocery that Saturday evening. They were done pretty early in the night, so we decided to hit up 30 Rock afterwards to meet "The Dudes" (a.k.a. Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer from The Lonely Island). I'm not one to really care about meeting celebrities in general, but I'm a really big fan of them and I love their work a lot. So we're waiting. There weren't as many people out there as I thought. I had to pee (from the beers I drank earlier at Arlene's, haha). But I wasn't going to leave and go to the bathroom and then miss anything.

Bill Hader comes out first but he says he's in a huge hurry and kind of just zooms past most people. He did take some pictures with the people standing next to us, but I didn't want to bother him since he said he had to be somewhere. He did wave and said hi as he walked by Mandi and I.

Jason Sudeikis was really nice. He was such a dude. So nice, haha. Like someone who works in your office with you and you make small talk with in the coffee room. (I mean that as a compliment).

Fred Armisen comes out next. What's funny is that no one would talk to you unless you said hi to them or were waving something out for them to sign (which makes sense because for all they know, you might not be a fan of theirs), but Fred pretty much walks up to Mandi and I and is like HEYY! *all smiley*. Actually, Jason was kind of the same way. They were cool! I'm wondering if we caught Fred's eyes because I know he is a musician and we were the only rock chicks there. Fred is awesome. I'd love to just see him at a party, sit next to him on the couch, and have a good conversation with him, haha.

We see Andy walk out and that's when the crowd really started going YAYYYYY Andy, Andy, Andy! It got louder when he was out there more than anyone else. But the crowd was actually much calmer and quieter the whole time than I thought they'd behave. As he's on the other side, we see Bryan Tucker, a.k.a Roy from the Digital Short Roy Rules. I froze up and couldn't remember his name. And he wasn't signing autographs as we were the only dorks who probably even realized who he was, haha. He walks by and I try to get his attention, but since I couldn't think of his name I didn't want to just be like "I a fucked a Akiva Schaffer" since Kiv had just walked out, too. And I didn't want him or Kiv to be like WTF? Haha. So Mandi says, "ROY RULES!" and he looks over and we're like Hiiii and he has this confused look on his face like, "how the hell do they know who I am?" haha. So good. I just wished I remembered his name so I could have said that instead and said a proper hello! I like his work as a writer a lot. He's written some of my favorite skits, including "The Race Draft" from Chapelle's Show.

We only saw Kiv stop for a minute to the people right in front of the door and then leave. And this was happening while Andy was making his way over, so it was either flag down Kiv or wait for Andy. Andy comes over and I tried to act all cool, haha. Mandi didn't have a sharpie, so she's like "You're gonna sign this with their (points to people next to us) pen". Andy takes their pen from them and is like "Gee, you guys were so prepared". I was gonna be like "We're so drunk, too!" but I figured I'd shut up before I made an ass of myself, haha.

I was kind of bummed about not meeting Akiva or Jorma (we waited and waited and we never saw Jorm come out). But at least we got to meet one of them.

I want to see a taping next time I visit New York and they're doing the show. I think I recognized some of the other people who walked out. They weren't cast members. I'm guessing they are writers on the show that somehow I've probably seen online one way or another and/or they were extras in skits.

So basically the main living person on my list who I have been wanting to meet (other than Jorm and Kiv) that I haven't yet is Margaret Cho. I have been wanting to meet her for years now - since the late 1980s, after I saw her on "Stand-up Spotlight". If I had just stayed in NYC for two more days, I might have because she was in town and went to the taping of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

In NYC right now

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 01:30:50 GMT

To any of my NYC friends, I am in town for the weekend. I will be at Arlene's Grocery tonight for Acey Slade. Staying at the Times Square Hilton. Fun times last night. Will post more when I'm back in Bmore (and I am not looking forward to being back in Bmore, haha)

News of the Year: FAITH NO MORE REUNION 2009!

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:21:35 GMT

According to some interview I read on mtv's site, they're only going to do Europe. Well, they also said they would never reunite at all just a few months ago. So I hope they will tour the U.S.!

Taken from www.fnm.com/news:

Here is the official statement:
--Begin--
FAITH NO MORE

Faith No More has always stood out as some sort of unique beast; part dog, part cat--its music almost as schizophrenic as the personalities of its members. When it all worked, it worked really well, even if the chemistry was always volatile. Throughout our 17years of existence, the mental and physical energy required to sustain this creature was considerable and relentless. Though amicable enough, when we finally split, we all followed paths seemingly destined to opposite ends of the universe.

Yet during the entire 10 years that have passed since our decision to break up we've experienced constant rumors and requests from fans and promoters alike. Nevertheless, for whatever reason, none of us kept in regular touch, much less to discuss any possibilities of getting together.

What's changed is that this year, for the first time, we've all decided to sit down together and talk about it. And what we've discovered is that time has afforded us enough distance to look back on our years together through a clearer lens and made us realize that through all the hard work, the music still sounds good, and we are beginning to appreciate the fact that we might have actually done something right.

Meanwhile we find ourselves at a moment in time with zero label obligations, still young and strong enough to deliver a kickass set, with enthusiasm to not only revisit our past but possibly add something to the present. And so with this we've decided to hold our collective breaths and jump off this cliff....
BACK, GOD FORBID, INTO THE MONKEY CAGE!!!

We can only hope that the experience of playing together again will yield results erratic and unpredictable enough to live up to the legacy of FNM.
Who know where this will end or what it will bring up...only the future knows. But we are about to find out!

FAITH NO MORE are:
Mike Bordin, Roddy Bottum, Bill Gould, Jon Hudson and Mike Patton

--End--

I'm the slowest porcupine in town...

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 22:11:31 GMT

And now for your viewing enjoyment, a little something we like to call "Porcupine Racetrack".

Old concert ticket stubs

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:04:42 GMT

I found these tonight. These are just a few of the many concerts I've attended. Some have autographs on the back of which I'm not sure who signed them or phone numbers from people I don't remember.

Go to http://flickr.com/photos/cherryteresa/3286640186/ to see notes about the shows.

The Simpsons: new opening in HD

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:56:23 GMT

I don't have an HD TV but I will be watching this tonight. :)

FDA has banned natural Vitamin B6 from supplements

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 01:26:43 GMT

This is ridiculous. Big Pharma does it again. The FDA has now banned natural Vitamin B6 from supplements.

From http://www.NaturalNews.com/025606.html:

(NaturalNews) The FDA has effectively banned a naturally-occurring form of vitamin B6 called pyridoxamine by declaring it to be a drug, reports the American Association for Health Freedom. Responding to a petition filed by a drug company, the FDA declared pyridoxamine to be "a new drug."

Now, any nutritional supplements containing pyridoxamine will be considered adulterated and illegal by the FDA, which may raid vitamin companies and seize such products. See the history of FDA raids on vitamin companies here: http://www.naturalnews.com/021791.html

Pyridoxamine occurs naturally in fish, chicken and other foods (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B6), putting the FDA in the strange position of banning a substance from dietary supplements even though it is already present in the food supply.

The FDA's war on Mother Nature

It's not the first time the FDA has declared a natural molecule to be a "drug" while attacking nutritional supplements that contain the same molecule. A similar story unfolded with red yeast rice and the lovastatin molecules it contains that lower high cholesterol. The drug companies engaged in biopiracy, ripping off the molecule from red yeast rice to make their now-famous "statin drugs." Once the statin drugs were patented, Big Pharma and the FDA went after red yeast rice, claiming the supplement was "adulterated with pharmaceuticals."

It wasn't really adulterated, of course. It just contained a natural statin-drug-like molecule that the drug companies copied and patented.

It would be like Big Pharma patenting vitamin C, then the FDA claiming that all oranges and lemons were adulterated with drugs because they naturally contain their own vitamin C.

This is the insanity of the FDA as it operates today. You can read more about the FDA on our channel webiste www.FDAreform.org which is updated every few days.

So will this ruling on pyridoxamine affect nutritional supplements? Yes, any supplements containing this form of vitamin B6 can now be declared "adulterated" by the FDA. Manufacturers of such supplements can be arrested and shut down for engaging in "illegal drug trafficking." Such is the nature of the FDA's agenda to criminalize nutritional supplement companies and limit consumers' access to Mother Nature's remedies.

I need to get out of here

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:19:46 GMT

I'm so bored with Baltimore, I want to scream. After my mom heals from her surgery in a few months, I am peacing the hell outta here.

The Lonely Island "Incredibad" leaked!

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 18:46:11 GMT

The Lonely Island Incredibad" has been leaked and it is SO GOOD! I don't even like the Strokes, but the song with Julian Casablancas is Ka-Blamo.

I think the album is going to debut at #1. If not, it will be in the top ten, at the very least.

Incredibad

Columbia University?

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:11:23 GMT

This morning, I was contacted by Columbia University about applying there. I hadn't considered it before now. Do I actually have a chance? I wish. The school seems pretty appealing to me and I have been thinking about NYC a lot lately. I really like that they have a school specifically for non-traditional students: the School of General Studies, which allows the option of attending full or part-time. But even if I was accepted, it is extremely expensive.

Anyway, I've been thinking about going to a school out of state. Something Ivy League is unlikely to happen, but I want to get out of here and get a fresh start on things. My plan was to stay here in Baltimore until I finish school. But I really don't know if I can take it here much longer. I don't hate it here but I am restless and bored. I feel like I have done most of what I was meant to do here and it's about time to move on to the next part of my life.

Writer's Block: Been There, Done That

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:17:43 GMT

If you could live one day in your life over and over, which day would it be?

View other answers

I'm assuming this question is being asked because it's Groundhog Day and there's that movie.
Let me ask another question here:
Is there a real point to Groundhog Day? I mean, really?

Crush(ed)

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:29:16 GMT

Random thought: Sometimes, when I have a crush on someone and then realize I have no chance, it makes me end up disliking him, haha.

Even if he ends up liking me later on down the line and pursues me, I've convinced myself so much not to like that person that I'm usually just like Nope.